


Camp Red Fern

by WolfgangRythem



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F, US Women's Soccer National Team
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-15
Updated: 2016-05-28
Packaged: 2018-03-23 01:05:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 26,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3749299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfgangRythem/pseuds/WolfgangRythem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex is a counselor at Camp Red Fern a camp for girls in Northern California. She's ready to have a carefree and relationship-less summer, that is until she meets a tan brown eyed girl.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! So I started a new story. I'm going to try to keep updating A Place to Call Home but at the moment I've got writer's block on that story! I already have a couple of chapters in this story done so you shouldn't have to wait long for the first few updates. Hope you enjoy!

Alex’s POV

 

Well, Alex thought in her head as she climbed out of the taxi, this could be a really awesome summer. Kelley, her long time friend back in southern California had convinced her to come and work at a summer camp for girls in Northern California called Camp Red Fern. Kelley had been doing it for years and always came back glowing and full of hilarious stories of her and her co-counselors. I also needed to get away from my boyfriend. He was killing me and I seriously needed a break to breathe because he was suffocating me. I glance around the area and see that a ton of cabins line a large lake on one side of the property. On the other side, there are stations set up, a pavilion with picnic tables, a gazebo, and several other random buildings that are in front of a wooded hilly area. I look around and see that there are no kids in sight and remember Kelley telling me that the kids wouldn’t arrive for the next couple of days. 

I make my way to what looks like the main building on the campsite, it looks like an old two story farmhouse. Once inside I see a couple of people around my age milling about the room but Kelley is nowhere in sight. I walk up to the woman that looks like she is in charge and introduces herself.

“Hi I’m Alex Morgan.” I say reaching her hand out.

“Welcome Alex! I’m Christie, one of the head counselors here.” She says shaking my hand. “It looks like you just got here so let me give you your key to your cabin that you’ll be sharing with 3 other counselors. You’re going to be in cabin blue so here are your t-shirts and keys.” She says handing me 5 or 6 royal blue shirts and a key set. “Now these keys are for your cabin, the supply shed, and the pavilion. Let me show you which cabin you’ll be staying in and then you can meet the rest of your coworkers” 

Christie leads me outside and we start walking towards the cabins. Every few cabins we pass have different colored flags. Christie explains to me that the bigger cabins are for the kids and that there are two cabins for every one for counselors. We finally reach the cabin with a blue flag in front and Christie walks up the porch and opens the door. As soon as I walk in I hear a squeal and feel arms wrap tightly around my waist. I look down and am met with a face full of freckles and an excited smile.

“Hey Kelley.” I say laughing. 

“Oh my gosh you’re here! This summer is going to be so much fun! I can not wait!” She says jumping up and down. 

“Well I can see you already know one of your roomies so I’ll leave you to it.” Christie says before heading out. 

“That one over there is yours.” She says pointing to a bunk bed and I notice someone’s stuff is already on the bottom bunk. “I’m sharing a bunk with Ash and your sharing one with Tobin. She’s a really cool chick I think you’ll get along great.”

“What are you saying about me squirrel?” I hear a voice pipe up from behind me. I turn and see one of the hottest girls I had ever seen. She was sweaty and out of breath from what I assumed was a run. She was super tan with dirty blonde hair that had wisps of baby hairs that had come loose of her ponytail and warm brown eyes. She was smiling at Kelley and I saw that her tan compliments her white straight teeth. Not to mention she was wearing a cutoff and I could see the defined muscles of her body. I had to restrain myself from openly staring at this girl I hadn’t even spoken to yet.

“Hey Tobin this is Alex! Remember I told you about her coming and working here?” 

“Hey Alex it’s nice to meet you.” Tobin says with a smile that could melt ice queen’s heart. “I would shake your hand but I’m pretty nasty from my run so I’m going to hit the showers real quick and meet you guys for lunch.” She says walking towards the bathroom with a towel over her shoulder. 

Kelley leads us over to the pavilion where I a lot of people are already sitting down and eating. We walk through the line with our tray and load up on hamburgers, coleslaw, French fries, and a chocolate chip cookie. We sit at a table that girls are sitting around and laughing. 

“Yo Kelley! I was wondering when you would come scampering for the food.” A girl with short blonde hair says. 

“Yeah yeah whatever Pinoe. Ok guys this is Alex a really good friend of mine from back home. Alex this is Pinoe, Lori, by the way don’t ever mess with them because they will retaliate with an evil prank.” Kelley says glaring at them causing the whole table to laugh.

“Kelley pushed me into the lake last year. She woke up the next morning covered in whipped cream and honey.” Pinoe says smiling and Lori gives her a high five. 

“These other dorks are Ashyln, our other roomie, Cheney, Sydney, Ali, Hope, and Heather.” She says pointing to each girl and they wave back saying hey to me. 

We fall into easy conversation with the girls and am really enjoying their company. They accepted me pretty quickly into their little group and I could tell this summer was going to be a blast. I’m in the middle of talking to Sydney when I feel someone plop down next to me. I look over and see that it’s Tobin who is looking at me with a smirk on her face. 

“Hi Alex it’s nice to officially meet you.” She says holding her hand out which I take and can’t help but notice how warm and soft they were. 

“Nice to meet you to Tobin.” I say smirking back. Her lips break out into a smile and turns to her food. I glance at her tray and see that she has double the amount of food than everyone else. 

“A little hungry are we?” 

“Well I’m always really hungry after my run, plus the lunch ladies love me.” She says winking at me before taking a big bite of her hamburger and tuning into the conversation the other girls were having. I really liked all of the girls but for some reason I was drawn to Tobin. I couldn’t explain it; maybe it was the way she laughed loud and smiled really big or that her eyes would get this excited look in them. She seemed so calm and confident about herself. 

After lunch our little group spend a couple of hours walking around the camp and they pointed out certain places and things to me. All of the girls had been counselors at this camp for a couple of years. I learned that Tobin had actually gone to this camp as a kid for a couple of years and loved it so much she wanted to come back and work it in the summer. I also found out that our cabin would be sticking together during activities and I silently rejoiced happy that I get to spend more time with Tobin.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got impatient with myself and decided to post another chapter lol.

The next day I wake up earlier than I usually do excited for the day ahead of me. I get dressed in my blue t-shirt and some Nike shorts and walk outside watching the sunrise and the reflection of it in the lake. I’m gazing at the scenery around me when I hear a steady rhythm of something hitting the ground. I spin around trying to detect the noise when I see its Tobin running towards the cabin. She comes to a halt teetering on her feet and I notice that she’s covered in sweat and dust. 

“Good morning.” I call out to her causing her head to pop up from its place where she had her hands on her knees. 

“Hey there. I didn’t know I had another early riser in the cabin with me. Kelley and Ash usually sleep to the last minute.” She chuckles still slightly out of breath. 

“Do you run every day?” I ask curious because I myself like to run.

“Yep. If it’s nice in the evenings and we’re not doing anything I like to run then too.” She says prior to taking a large sip out of her water bottle. She walks over to the porch and sits down on the steps and begins stretching her legs. “So this is your first time working here huh?”

“Yeah Kelley finally convinced me to drop my other summer job and come try this out.” 

“Well get ready to have the time of your life.” She says happily I see her glance down at her watch and stand. “I’m going to take a quick shower and get dressed. You want to go grab some breakfast with me afterwards?”

“Yeah sounds like a good idea to me.”

“Awesome.” She says smiling widely at me before walking quietly into the cabin.

Not even ten minutes later Tobin comes out wearing her blue t-shirt and Nikes. We walk side by side and ask questions about each other on the way to the pavilion. While eating breakfast I learned that Tobin had lived in California for a while but had recently moved to Portland and worked at an animal hospital and loved it. She was a year older then me at 23 and loved watching soccer. We sit and talk for what must be an hour until the rest of our cabin shows up. Kelley slumps into the seat next to me yawning while Ash does the same on Tobin’s side of the table.

“I need coffee.” Kelley mumbles placing her head on the table. 

“I forgot how dramatic you are in the mornings. You’re going to really need it tomorrow. I ran into Christie while running and she said our group is hiking Red Fern Hill.” Tobin says taking a sip of her coffee.

“On the first day?!” Kelley shouts popping her head up.

“Yeah so get ready squirrel.” She says laughing.

“What’s so bad about Red Fern Hill?” I ask.

“It’s not bad. Kelley’s just whining because she’s not fully awake yet, she actually loves it.” Tobin says.

“Correction. You love it.” Kelley interrupts and stands to go get a cup of coffee.

“Anyways it’s a four hour hike. Two hours up two hours down. The kids like it because it’s really pretty and it’s cool because you can see the whole camp.”

“Wow that does sound cool, I cant wait for tomorrow!” I say excitedly 

“See Kel! Alex is excited!”

“Yeah because she’s never had to climb the damn thing.” Kelley grumbles causing us all to laugh. 

Over the next couple of hours we set up the cabins on either side of ours getting them ready for the girls that would be arriving soon. In each cabin there were 6 bunk beds, which meant Kelley, Tobin, Ash, and I would have a total of 24 girls to look after. At noon we had out to the greeting area ready for the onslaught of girls that would be coming in on buses. Several large buses pulled up a few minutes later and girls began to pile out of them. In the beginning it was a little chaotic but eventually all of the girls got put into cabins. The girl’s ages ranged from 8-14 and all of them were looking around excited. We start walking our crew to their cabins while introducing ourselves to them. 

When we reach the cabins the girls run in squealing and jump on the bunk beds that they want. We spend the next few hours letting the girls settle in and showing them around camp. Soon the dinner bell is ringing and we head over to the pavilion to eat. I can’t believe how many girls there are here. There has to be over 200 girls swarming around the dinner area. After dinner we go to bed knowing that it was going to be a long day ahead of us tomorrow.

 

I wake up the next morning and find that Tobin is actually sitting in her bed rather than running. 

“Psss.” I whisper not wanting to wake Kelley or Ash up. Tobin’s head pops up from the book she was reading and smiles when she see’s I’m awake. She hops down from the top of the bunk and lands lightly on her feet. 

“Hey.” She whispers back. “You want to go get breakfast before the army attacks?”

“Yeah hold on let me change and put on my shoes.” I quickly change and we walk side by side to go eat.

“So how come you didn’t run today? Getting tired??” I jokingly ask which makes her laugh.

“Nah I just didn’t want my legs to be tired for the hike today. Usually one of the younger kids gets tired so I have to carry them. Sometimes Kelley.” 

“Really?” I ask chuckling.

“Yeah it’s really tiring having to carry her down. And I only do it if she’s really complaining or something.”

“Would you make an exception for me?” I ask. Woh, I thought to myself, what are you doing Alex? Did you really just flirt with her? Am I attracted to this girl? We only met a couple of days ago for Christ’s sake!

“Maybe.” I glance over and see Tobin looking at me with a weird look on her face but she’s smiling so I just smile back and push her shoulder.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys posting this chapter now because tomorrow I'll be working to get out the next chapter of A Place to Call Home. Hope you enjoy even if it is a bit short!

We’re passing one of the cabin’s our girls are in when I see that a younger girl is sitting on the porch by herself. Before I can say anything Tobin’s already made her way over and has sat down next to the little girl. She is a tiny little thing with blonde hair in a messy braid and bright blue eyes.

“Hey what’s your name?”

“Molly.” She says shyly.

“Well hi Molly. I’m Tobin and that’s Alex do you remember us from yesterday?”

Molly nods her head in acknowledgment. 

“Do you want to come and eat breakfast with us?”

This times she shakes her head and plays with the stuffed bunny in her hands. Tobin stares at her for a second before leaning and whispering in Molly’s ear. Whatever she said made Molly grin widely and nod her head excitedly. Tobin stands and lifts Molly up to sit on her shoulders and sends a wink my way. The scene next to me as we walk is pretty adorable with Molly bouncing her bunny on top of Tobin’s head and Tobin just smiling brightly. 

When we get to the eating area, Tobin slowly lowers Molly onto one of the benches and whispers in her ear and walks off towards the kitchen. I watch as Molly swings her legs and is anxiously watching for Tobin to get back. She returns shortly with three plates of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and fruit. I get up to go get our drinks and get back to the table to see Tobin sneakily giving Molly a piece of cake so that the other few counselors in the building wouldn’t see. Molly tears into the cake smiling at Tobin the whole time. Tobin pretends to take some of Molly’s fruit making her laugh and try to swat her hands away.

“No Toby!” She says giggling.

“Come on you have so much!”

“Toby that’s myyyy fruit!” She says laughing at Tobin who eventually gives up but places her hand on top of her head for a moment until she stars to eat her own food. 

When the kids start to pour in looking for food, Tobin and I stand to go get everything ready for the hike. Molly stands with us and follows Tobin around like a puppy dog. I glance over at Tobin smirking and she smiles shrugging her shoulders before picking up Molly and placing her on her shoulders again. Tobin heads into the kitchen and I follow curious as to what she was doing. She walks up to one of the older ladies and begins to sweet talk her into packing a picnic basket for us so that we could eat at the top of the hill. The lady smiles at Tobin and pats her cheek before turning around and beginning to pack two huge backpacks full of sandwiches, fruit, bags of chips, and juice boxes. Tobin thanks the lady sincerely kissing her cheek and we walk out as I carry the two bags and Tobin carries Molly. We walk back to our cabin lightly conversing and spot Ash and Kelley setting out small backpacks for all the kids loading them up with a bottle of water, a couple of granola bars, and some other knick knacks. 

“Hey look what I scored.” Tobin says once we got close enough and nods her head to me carrying the two bags.

“Dude what did you get??” Ash says placing down a backpack and trotting over to me to check it out.

“I got Margaret to pack us a lunch so we could eat up at the top of the hill!” Tobin says smiling and Molly raises her hands up in victory. 

“What?! Gosh she really has a sweet spot for you. She would never do this for anyone else!” Ash says excitedly.

“What can I say I’m extremely charming.”

“Oh my lord. Ash do not inflate her head anymore then it already is.” Kelley exasperated.

“Your just jealous Kel that she didn’t give you an extra cookie at dinner last night.” Tobin says laughing and Kelley sticks her tongue out at her. 

The girls finish up packing the bags with the help of Molly and by the time they’re done the girls had come back from breakfast and were sitting on the porch. Ash went around counting heads to make sure everyone was present while Kelley is handing out all the backpacks. We laid out a few simple rules before starting our journey. Simple things like don’t veer off the path, don’t eat any berries you see without asking because they might be poisonous, be careful where you step because there are spots where the rocks and dirt are loose, and a couple of first aid rules. With that said we head off with Tobin and I leading the way and Ash and Kelley bringing up the rear with all the kids in between. 

At random times on the way up Tobin points at a certain plant or animal track and explain some facts to the girls. The girls all listen intently to Tobin, no one more than Molly though. Molly has stuck to Tobin’s side quietly taking two steps for every one of Tobin’s. About an hour into the hike Tobin stops and shouts excitedly.

“Hey! Check it out wild strawberries!” 

All of the girls come running over to Tobin but she stops them with her hands outstretched. 

“You are only allowed to pick the ones that are red. Do not pick the green ones because they aren’t ready yet and there’s no point in picking them when you can’t eat them. Oh and be careful not to step on any of the plants!” She says before allowing them to scatter around the small strawberry patch. 

I’ve been looking and haven’t found any ripe strawberries yet and I have about given up when I feel a tap on my shoulder. Tobin was standing in front of me with a shy sheepish look on her face and her hand outstretched with two large red strawberries in it. I smile widely and she does the same when I reach out and take the strawberries.

“Thanks Tobin.” I say placing a hand on her arm and walking off to gather up the girls so we could continue our hike. What I didn’t know was that after I left Tobin let out a big breath and watched me collect the girls with a small smile on her face.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BOOM! An update for each story today!

After another hour of hiking we reach the top of the rather large hill and I look over the edge at Camp Red Fern below us. Ash and Kelley have already started to handout the food for lunch and I hurry over to help them. We sit and enjoy lunch and the view and soon the kids have started a massive game of freeze tag. We laugh at some of the girls and I notice Tobin fiddling with some of the wildflowers that are abundant on the hill. 

“What are you doing?” I ask curiously leaning over to inspect what she had in her hands. 

“Making a flower crown.” She says before placing it carefully on my head and grinning at me causing my stomach to do a couple of flips. How was it possible this girl could make me feel like this after only knowing her for a short period of time? I can’t respond because as soon as the girls see the flower crown on my head they come running over wanting one too. 

“Ok ok I cant make one for everyone!” She says laughing.

“You made one for Ms. Alex!” One of the girls pointed out.

“That’s because I couldn’t let you trample all of these beautiful flowers while playing freeze tag! Here’s the deal how about I teach you how to make them??” Causing all of the girls to shout their approval. 

“Ok first step is to gather a lot of flowers and to make sure you pull them out so that the stem is long.” She instructs while gathering some more flowers herself. Soon she has the girls sitting in a circle around us and is teaching them how to make a flower crown. 

“And then you tie the stem to this flower and voila! You have a flower crown!” She says triumphantly holding up the crown. The girls spend the next half hour making flower crowns, necklaces, and bracelets. Kelley was completely covered in them at the end and demanded that we must all call her the flower queen. A little while later Ash says we should head back so we can get back in time for dinner. We quickly pick up and are about to leave when Ash interrupts us.

“How about we have a little fun on the way down?” She asks with a gleam in her eye.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“You know how there are two paths to get down?”

“Yeah.” Tobin says. 

“I say we race to see who gets to the bottom first and loser has firewood duty on Saturday.”

“Oh your so on!” Tobin says grinning.

“Alright I’ve got Kelley you’ve got Alex and each of us get 12 girls.” Ash says and picks out 12 girls to be on their team. Molly sticks with us and 11 other girls and soon we’re going separated ways down the mountain quickly but safely. 

We must only be 30 minutes into the hike when my shoelace gets caught on a fallen limb and I go tumbling down the hill. I hear Tobin calling out to me as I roll down the hill and finally come to a stop. The first thing I feel when I stop rolling is the pain on my shin and look down to see I have about a 4 inch cut that is bleeding profusely. I have a few other scrapes but other than that large cut I’m ok. Tobin runs down with the girls following her and comes to kneel next to me when she see’s the cut. Some of the girls are starting to freak out but Tobin calms them down. 

“Ok girls can someone tell me what’s the first thing you do when someone’s got a cut?” She asks calmly as she reaches for her backpack.

“You find a counselor.” A couple of girls chime in.

“Good. Since I’m here what’s the next step.”

“You put a band aid on it!” Molly says.

“Bingo but I don’t have a band aid this big so I’m going to have to improvise.” She says before pulling out a small army knife and cutting her shirt off right below her sports bra. Even though my leg really hurt at the moment I couldn’t help but stare at how amazing Tobin’s stomach was. Did she do a thousand abs along with running every day too?!

Tobin begins cutting the fabric into long strips. She placed a large folded up portion gently on the cut and began wrapping it with the strips of her t-shirt. She rummages through her bag again and pulls out a bottle of ibuprofen and hands me two pills and a water bottle. I swallow the pills and hand back the water bottle to Tobin.

“I’m sorry that’s the best I can do.” She says sincerely.

“Hey it’s ok you did better than what I could have done.” I say chuckling.

“You’re probably going to need stiches. Can you walk?”

“Um I don’t know will you help me up to see?” I ask and she pulls me up to a standing position. When I stand and try to put weight on my bad leg a searing pain shoots up it. Obviously I made a face when I put weight on it because Tobin holds me up so I don’t put any weight on it at all. 

“Ok I have an idea. Can you step up on this rock?” She asks and I take a step with my good leg as she helps me get up. “Ok now climb onto my back.”

“Tobin you’re not going to carry me the rest of the way down!”

“Why not?”

“That’s a really long way!”

“Alex I can handle it plus how else are you going to get down?” She says raising an eyebrow at me. I roll my eyes knowing I lost the battle. 

“Fineeee. But if you get tired we are taking breaks!” 

“Ok whatever you want.” She says before motioning for me to climb onto her back. I do so and she hooks her arms around my legs to hold me up. I wrap my arms around her neck as she begins to walk us down the trail. One of the first things I notice is the pleasant scent that comes off of Tobin. 

“I told you I’d make an exception for you.” She says and I can hear the smile in her voice. I chuckle at the thought of our earlier conversation and how it actually came into play. 

“Yeah well I didn’t plan it to happen like this.” 

“You never know what the world is going to throw at you.” She says simply. 

Tobin carries me on her back for the next two hours without ever taking a break. I knew she was fit but I can’t believe how fit she actually is. Heck she’s not even out of breath; she’s keeping easy conversation with all of the girls! When we finally get to the bottom of the hill we find Kelley and Ash’s group hanging around bored.

“Finally! We got here like 45 minutes ago! What took you s- Oh my god Alex are you ok?!” She asks running over in concern when she sees the bloodstained bandage on my leg and Tobin’s torn shirt.

“Yeah she’ll be ok she just tripped on our way down and the cut was too big for the band aids I had. Hey Kel will you and Ash watch our girls so I can bring Alex to the first aid station?” Tobin says. 

“Yeah of course! Ok girls come and follow the flower queen to dinner!” She says prancing off. Molly tries to follow us but Tobin bends over with me still on her back and whispers into Molly’s ear and she runs off to join the group.

“What do you keep promising her?” I ask as Tobin straightens up and walks in the direction of the main building. 

“That she can eat breakfast with us again tomorrow.”

“Us?” 

“Well yeah. I thought our early morning meals were becoming a routine.” She says shrugging her shoulders. 

“I guess it could become a thing.” I say tightening my grip I had on her shoulders. 

“Good.” She says stepping through the doorway. She carries me to a small side room and sets me down on a table. 

“I’ll be right back.” She says and walks out. She returns shortly with an elderly lady following her. 

“Oh my. Tobin your friend sure did take a tumble.” She said once unwrapping the fabric from my cut. She takes a couple of items out of the cabinets and begins to clean out my cut. 

“Ok honey now this is going to sting really bad but I have to clean out this cut.” She says before pouring alcohol on the cut. I gasp closing my eyes and clench my fist as the pain shoots through my leg. I feel Tobin’s hand intertwine with mine and gently rub the back of my hand to soothe me. The lady cleans out the rest of my cut, stitches it up, and placed a large band-aid over it. 

“Alright your good to go just come back in 10 days so I can take them out.” She says patting my knee and walking out. 

“Come on Lex let’s get you to dinner.” Tobin says putting me on her back again. 

“Actually Tobin I’m not very hungry could you bring me back to the cabin?” I ask pleasantly surprised by the fact that she called me Lex. 

“Yeah for sure whatever you want.” She says changing the direction to our cabin. 

I lay my head against her neck and close my eyes, exhausted from the day’s events. The next thing I knew I feel myself being lower onto a bed and covered with a blanket. A familiar smell engulfs me and I fall asleep almost the instant moment my head hits the pillow.


	5. Chapter 5

Tobin’s POV

I walk back to the pavilion stretching the sore muscles in my back as I went. Not that Alex was heavy in the least, but carrying someone for two hours straight made my muscles ache. I reach the dinner area and gratefully except the extra portions that Margaret gave me. I sit down next to Pinoe and start engulfing my food.

“Dude I heard you carried Alex the whole way down Red Fern Hill!” Lori says taking a bite of her cookie.

“Yeah she tripped and banged up her leg pretty bad.” I respond back. 

“Where is she now?” Kelley asks.

“She’s asleep in my bed.”

“Wohhh! Get it Tobs!” Pinoe exclaims.

“It’s not like that Pinoe. She was tired and I didn’t want her climbing up the ladder with her leg.” I say.

“Come on Tobs you can’t say your not attracted to her! I saw those puppy eyes you were giving her.” Ashlyn says ragging on me

“Shut up dude.” I grumble out blushing. All the girls laugh at me and push my shoulders jokingly. 

“So Kelley you know Alex from back home right?” Cheney asks.

“Yeah we went to high school and college together.”

“Does she have a significant other or is Tobin free to go charm her?” She asks teasingly. 

“You guys are seriously the worst.” I say stabbing at my green beans.

“Actually I was in New York for a couple of months before this and she hasn’t texted me saying anything. So I think she’s a free agent go for it Tobin!” Kelley says excitedly while the other girls cheer me on.

“Alright I’m headed out. I’m pretty tired after today’s events.” I say standing up.

“Yeah carrying your woman down a mountain I guess can even make THE Tobin Heath tired.” Pinoe cackles out at me. I roll my eyes smiling at how ridiculous the girls at my table were and begin to walk back to the cabin. 

I think along the way of how much I was drawn to Alex and it had only been a few days. I had actually never met someone who affected me from the first time I saw them, and Alex did that to me. The first time I saw her I knew I would do anything to get closer to her. Maybe something could happen over the next ten weeks that we were together I thought hopefully. 

When I walk through our cabin door I gaze at Alex as she peacefully sleeps in my bed. After I realize that me staring at her while she was sleeping was creepy, I look away and quickly get dressed for bed. I climb up to the top bunk and crawl underneath the covers noticing the sweet smell of vanilla that greets me. It doesn’t take long for me to fall asleep after a very tiring day. 

I wake up the next morning as my watch alarm went off at 5:55. I roll over stretching my muscles and immediately stop. I am incredibly sore from yesterday and my muscles are screaming in protest. Well I guess I’m not going on a run today. I gingerly climb out of bed wincing at how sore I actually was. Thank god today is was learning how to tie knots and start fires from a match because I don’t know if I was up for any high caliber activities today. I wobble around and change before walking on to the porch so I could stretch out my poor muscles. I’m not out there very long when I hear the screen door open up behind me and Alex walking out of it.

“Good morning.” I say.

“Good morning. You didn’t go for a run today?”

“Uh noooo. I woke up this morning and realized how sore I was. I think it’ll be a workout to walk to breakfast.” I say chuckling.

“Shit I’m sorry Tobin!” 

“What? No! I’m fine just a little sore is all. How’s your leg feeling?” I say nodding my head to her stitched up wound.

“It’s a little tender but nothing I can’t handle. You want to go to breakfast?” She asks.

“Yeah but we gotta drop by Cabin 2 to pick up Molly.” I say and we start walking off slowly. 

“Wow we must look like a sight. I’m walking slow because I have stitches and you’re hobbling around like an old lady.” She says and we laugh at how stupid we probably look. We roll up in front of the cabin and I see that Molly was already waiting for us. At the sight of us she comes running towards us and places herself in between Alex and I. She grabs both of our hands and starts leading us to breakfast. 

Molly had somehow squirmed her way into my heart. I couldn’t say no to that sweet face of hers. I don’t know why she wouldn’t really talk to the other counselors but Alex and I. When we reach the pavilion Molly tugs on my hand to get my attention. 

“Toby?”

“What is it Molly?” I ask but she beckons me to bend down closer.

“Is Mrs. Alex ok?” She whispers. 

“Yes she is.” I answer smiling at Molly. 

I look up and see Alex watching me with a confused look on her face and I send a wink her way. I try and hide the smirk that’s threatening to cross my face when I see the slight blush on her cheeks. I grab our food while Alex gets our drinks. I love the routine that we are starting to have in the morning; it let me have some time with Alex without the other girls harassing me. We keep up a casual banter slightly flirting throughout our meal. Molly sits next to me laughing at me whenever I try to steal some of her food. At the end of the meal when I go to pick up our plates, I hand Molly a chocolate chip cookie under the table causing her to break out into a delighted giggle. 

Throughout the week Alex and I grow closer. When she thinks no one else is watching Alex will look at me or her touch will linger for longer than usual. Every time she does this my heart starts to pound faster, and I probably look like an idiot because I stare at Alex a lot. 

“Dude you’re staring again.” Ash says as we load the canoes into the water. 

“Shut up. I see you staring at Ali too you know.” I say and watch Ash’s face redden. 

“Ok I’ll shut up about Alex.” Ash says and I laugh knowing she didn’t want to talk about her feelings for Ali. 

We have four large canoes, which meant each counselor had 6 kids in the boat with them. Of course Molly stuck with me and I got 5 other girls, Kate, Becky, Hannah, Chloe, and Riley. We spent a couple of minutes instructing the girls on how to steer and paddle and soon all 4 canoes are in the water. 

“How about we race to the other side!” Alex calls out across the water. 

“I’m totally down with that.” I respond back

“Ok what does the winner get??” Ash asks.

“The winner gets... Oh I’ve got it! The losers have to make the winners all the smores that they want tonight!” Kelley says excitedly.

All of the girls cheer at this and start making game faces at each other ready to go to war. We all line up even with the dock ready to start the race. Pinoe and Lori’s group are walking by when they see us so they decide to jump in on the fun by starting us off.

“LADIES! ARE YOU READY TO RUMMMBBBBLLLLEEEEEE!” Lori yells out from the dock.

“Alright. Take your marks. Kelley don’t you move!!” Pinoe shouts out pointing her finger to Kelley who was about to try and get a head start.

“Ok. Take your marks. Get set…..GO!” She shouts throwing her hands in the air for emphasis. 

We all shoot off at the same time zipping forward. I have to say my girls are pretty awesome, they are all rowing in sync with each other and are keeping us pointed straight ahead. I glance to the side and see that Ash’s canoe is spinning in circles and is quickly falling behind. I look to my other side and see some of the girls in Alex’s canoe are paddling backwards causing them to be at a stand still. I laugh as I hear them both shouting out orders on how to paddle correctly. I’m searching for Kelley when I see her start to inch up on us. We have about 25 yards left and we are both neck and neck when I decide to take things into my own hands.

“Kelley look a squirrel!” I say pointing to the bank.

“What where?!” She yells spinning around so fast that she loses her balance from her standing position and falls into the lake. 

My canoe cruises by theirs and we hit the lake bank first. My team jumps out cheering because we were victorious. I look out in the water and see Kelley spitting water out of her mouth and glaring at me. 

“You tricked me!” She shouts 

“Anything is fair in love and war!” I shout back to her laughing at how ridiculous she looks as she tries to claw her way back into the canoe. 

Alex and Ash finally are able to direct their team to the other side of the lake, and by this time Kelley has dragged herself out of the water. 

“Well it looks like we are getting a million smores made for us tonight.” I state cockily while my girls cheer.

“You totally cheated!” Kelley complains.

“I did no such thing, you’re the one that fell out of her own canoe.” I say chuckling.

“Man I really wanted unlimited smores.” Kelley whines.

We spend the rest of the day gathering firewood for the weekly fire that is held on Saturday nights. The first one was always the biggest so we had another cabin, Hope, Ali, Cheney, and Heather help us out in setting it up. All of the girls were really excited, but I knew that after an hour or so they would begin to nod off from exhaustion and we would put them to bed. That’s when the real fun would begin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll going to try and have the next chapter out by tomorrow!


	6. Chapter 6

Once we gathered all of the firewood up and carried it all to the fire pit, we had a couple of hours to relax. We decided it would be nice to sit on the bank tanning or some of the other girls go swimming. We change quickly into our suits and then all of the girls are running down the deck and diving into the water. I chuckle at them joking around in the water but it dies in my throat when I see Alex walk out in only her bikini. Christ Almighty I might have died on gone to heaven. I haven’t seen Alex workout once since being here but damn she had an amazing body. My eyes travelled up her slim muscled legs to her toned tan stomach and finally up to her face. I can see that she’s checking me out as well and is biting her lip when her eyes meet mine. A small grin makes its way across my face as she walks towards me with a playful look in her eyes. 

“Hey.” She says once she’s in front of me. 

“Do you like workout in the middle of the night??”

“No why?” She asks laughing. 

“Because you have killer body and I was wandering how you do it.” I ask genuinely curious on how she maintains her body.

“Use your imagination.” She whispers in my ear running her hands across my stomach as she walks off. Goose bumps erupt all over my body at her statement. 

“Shit.” I mumble under my breath trying to get my heart to stop beating so fast as I watch Alex walk off. Before I can get Alex back for momentarily leaving me speechless, I feel someone wrap themselves around my leg. I look down and see Molly’s blue eyes staring up at me hopefully. 

“Toby will you teach me how to swim?” She asks quietly.

“Your parents didn’t teach you how to swim?” I ask. At this she ducks her head down and slowly shakes her head. I squat down so that I’m eye level with her and tilt her chin so our eyes could connect. 

“Of course I’ll teach you Molly. Lets go tear it up!” I say lifting her up and spinning her around making her laugh. 

I spend the next hour or so teaching Molly how to stay afloat and kick towards me. She was a really quick learner and by the end of the hour she could tread water for almost a minute without needing my help. When I could tell that she’s getting tired I put her on my shoulders and walk out of the water. A couple of the girls have swum out to some of the large rocks in the middle of the pond and were having a cannon ball competition, and of course Kelley was out there competing with the girls. Most of the girls however, are laying on the sandy bank soaking up the sun. 

I lay down next to Alex and Molly crawls on top of me laying her head on my chest. I look over and see Alex smiling at me before turning her head back towards the sun and closing her eyes. Knowing it was a risk to be seen by the other girls or being rejected, I reach tentatively over and intertwine my hand with hers. A small smile occurs on Alex’s face and she squeezes my hand back gently. The butterflies that were fluttering in my stomach have settled down and I let out a large sigh in relief. Molly also lets out a loud sigh and I chuckle at her copying me. We lay there, our hands clasped together for about 30 minutes until I feel Alex roll onto her side facing me. I put a finger to my lips and indicate that Molly had fallen asleep on my chest after being exhausted from swimming. We stare at each other for a few moments but the dinner bell shakes us from our spell. I gently shake Molly awake and stand still holding her. Alex and I walk side by side to the pavilion for dinner. 

“Alright ladies remember, save some room for all those smores that we get tonight.” I say to the girls that were on my team in the canoe race just trying to rub it in front of Kelley a little bit more.

“Tobin you suck.” Kelley pouts while eating her corn. Throughout the rest of dinner we joke around and Kelley pelts me with the remainder of her corn. 

When the sun finally starts to set, the whole camp heads out to the large bonfire that we had built earlier in the day. Around the pit there are large logs for seats that have been there before even I was here. Christie and Abby bring out all of the smore materials while Ash gets the bonfire going. Soon the fire was roaring and the girls began to get excited to make some smores. I sit next to Alex and wait for the fire to die down a little so that we could get close enough to roast marshmallows. Once it has the girls take turns cooking their marshmallows over the hot embers. 

“Well Kelley a smore sounds really good about now.” I say to Kelley who is sitting a couple of seats down. Kelley begrudgingly stands and starts to make me a smore.

“Here you go your majesty.” She says dramatically bending down holding the smore out to me. 

“Kelley I’d like another one please.” I smirk taking the one out of her hand. 

“But-“

“Kel weren’t you the one who came up with this wager???”

She doesn’t say anything but gives me the stink eye while stomping back over to make another smore. 

“Why do you need two smores Tobs?” Alex asks me.

“One is for you.” I say handing the smore in my hand to her. She smiles brightly and thanks me before taking a large bite. I laugh when she pulls the sandwich away and strings of marshmallow get stuck on her face. 

“You have something on your face.” I say moving closer and using my thumb to wipe away the melted marshmallow off the corner of her mouth. I didn’t realize how close Alex and I were until I looked up and saw only a foot separated us. I saw Alex’s eyes glance at my lips but before either of us could act, a flaming marshmallow flies right between us. We snap out of our spell for the second time that day and look over to see Kelley trying to hide behind Ali while pointing her finger at Ash. We playfully glare at her and she mouths the word sorry across the fire. 

“I’ve got a plan.” I say and continue to whisper my plan into her ear. Alex giggles and nods her head before standing and slowly walking around the campfire while I do the same on the other side. Kelley doesn’t realize what we’re doing until its too late. I go for Kelley’s legs and Alex goes for her arms. She tries wiggling out of our grip but is unsuccessful and we start to carry her towards the lake. 

“Should we throw her in??” I ask the girls who had followed us onto the dock and they all scream their approval.

“Traitors! You are all dead to me!” Kelley shouts out. 

“Throw her in! Throw her in! Throw her in!” The girls chant. 

We swing Kelley back and forth over the water while she pleads with us not to throw her in. With one final swing we toss Kelley into the lake and she comes to the surface spluttering water. 

“Hey Kel I thought you had enough swimming for one day.” I taunt referring to her falling off her canoe earlier in the day. 

Kelley races for the shore and gets out chasing us around the fire. She catches Alex first, hugging her and completely soaking her. Once she’s decided she’s gotten Alex wet enough she turns her attention towards me. 

“Minions! Your flower queen demands that you stop that offender!” She says pointing at me. All of the girls in our cabin run and jump on me trying to hold me still. I’m only able to walk a few feet until they have pulled me to the ground and Kelley jumps on top of me. 

“Ok ok ok! I get it I’m sorry!” I yell out and she finally gets off of me. 

“You are such a dork.” I say as I wrap my arms around her shoulder and pulling her into a damp hug. I look up at Alex and see her smiling at the two of us and I realize that I haven’t had this much fun in a while.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was really procrastinating on homework sooo you guys get 3 chapters in 1 day!

After another hour of eating smores and joking around, Christie and Abby come in and say that its time for the girls to go to bed. I see Alex start walking off to our cabin and smile realizing she doesn’t know what we do every year at the end of the first week of camp. I run after her and grab her hand to stop her from walking any further. She turns around and smiles when she sees that it’s me in front of her. 

“Hey it’s not our bedtime yet come on.” I say pulling her back to the fire keeping our hands together. While I was gone the other girls were out gathering supplies. Kelley, Ash, and Pinoe came back with their arms full of alcohol ranging from beer, tequila, rum, and vodka. Lori, Ali, and Hope follow with paper cups, plastic shot glasses, Gatorade, and soft drinks. Cheney and HAO have a ton of candy and snacks, and Syd brings up the rear with her phone and Bose speakers. 

“Let’s get this party started!” Syd yells and we all shout in agreement. We were able to be as loud as we want and play music because the fire pit was far enough away from the cabins. Alex turns around and looks at me incredulously not believing that we pulled this together so quickly. I laugh at the look on her face until Kelley pulls her away to do a shot with her. Ash walks up to me and hands me a beer which I thank her for. 

“I can’t believe you guys brought all of this!” Alex exclaims.

“Yeah we do this every year and Christie and Abby are cool with it as long as we don’t get too trashed.” Ali replies with a shrug while Pinoe and Kelley bust into laughter at the end of her statement. 

“Plus we use paper cups and plastic shot glasses so we can just throw them in the fire when we’re done using them, we learned that the hard way.” Cheney says with raised eyebrows. 

We sit around the fire and enjoy each other’s company and the nice night. Several beers and an hour later I had a great buzz and I knew that all of the other girls did as well. I don’t know who was the worst though. It was a tough call between Kelley and Pinoe who had been doing a shot contest and Ali and Ash who had done a shot gunning beer contest. The fire had burned had burned down into the perfect kind of fire for just chilling around. 

I’m sitting across the fire from Alex talking to Cheney when Kelley changes the throwback Pandora station to a slow jazzy station. 

“Oh this is the stuff.” She says and we all began to sway to the music.

When Slow Dancing in a Burning Room by John Mayer comes on I stand and walk around the fire to Alex. I had gotten enough liquid courage to do what I had been wanting to do all night long. 

“Will you dance with me?” I ask extending my arm out, wanting nothing more than for her to place her hand in mine. 

A small smile forms on her face and as she takes my hand I break out into a full-blown grin. I pull her into me wrapping one arm around her waist while the other clasps our hands together and holds it against my chest. She lays her head against the side of mine as we let the sweet vocals of John Mayer wash over us. I want to memorize the feeling of warmth that runs through my body as we dance against one another, never wanting the moment to end. We slow dance to the song letting the tune take over our rhythm. Eventually the song ends but I don’t let go of her and she doesn’t let go of me. We continue to sway against each other as Home by Michael Buble plays next. 

Halfway through the song our moment is broken by a loud thunderclap followed almost immediately by a tremendous downpour. All of the girls start yelling and scramble to pick up the remaining beer and alcohol bottles. Syd places her speakers under her shirt and takes off running leaving a trail of Michael Buble’s voice behind her. 

I run pulling Alex with and we’re hysterically laughing by the time we make it back to our porch. A flash of lighting crosses the sky illuminating the porch for a brief moment allowing me to see the happy expression on Alex’s face. At that moment I couldn’t help but lean forward and press my lips to hers. Alex doesn’t respond at first in surprise but is soon kissing me back. I pull away and smile brightly at her and am about to lean in again when Ash and Kel interrupt us by laughing and running onto the porch. 

“Woh man this is one heck of a storm.” Kelley says and shakes her head like a dog. I had noticed that Ali and Ash had disappeared an hour ago and Ash had a happy expression on her face, but I decided to keep quiet and give her shit tomorrow. 

We head into the cabin and put on some dry clothes and all the while the storm is getting worse outside. Every time it thunders or lightening flashes I notice that Alex jumps. We climb into bed and I make myself comfy ready to go to sleep. When a particularly loud thunder clash happens I hear climb down the ladder and next thing I know she’s poking my shoulder. I roll over and see that she is standing by my bed clasping her hands nervously.

“Can I sleep with you?” She asks right as another powerful thunderclap rumbles out. 

Without even waiting for my approval, Alex climbs into my bed and under my covers. She wraps her arms around me and places her head on my chest right under my chin. I chuckle at her reaction and pull the covers over the two of us and place an arm around her, wiggling a bit to get comfortable. Obviously Alex is terrified of thunderstorms and I found it adorable that she wanted to sleep with me to feel safe. I start to fall asleep quickly from the warmth of Alex’s body against mine. A sudden loud noise awakens me from my slumber and I lift my head from its spot against Alex’s and see that Molly is standing next to my bed soaked and shivering. 

I nudge Alex to wake up so I could help Molly get out of her wet clothes. She wakes up and blinks her eyes a couple of times moving to the side so I could get up. I climb out of bed and grab a towel so I could quickly dry Molly off. I strip off her drenched pajamas and pull one of my soft white t-shirts over her head and smile at how big it is on her. I crawl back into bed and Molly follows scooting into my side. 

“Looks live I’ve got to sleep with two scaredy cats.” I whisper to Alex and she smiles sleepily before placing her head back on my chest. I wrap my arms around Alex and Molly and our strange little trio drift off to sleep for a final time.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys I know I'm pretty terrible at responding to all of your comments but I actually really appreciate them! Hope you enjoy this chapter and the next should be out soon!

I wake up to my watch’s alarm and hurry to turn it off so it doesn’t wake up either of the girls sleeping next to me. I feel Alex move her head off my chest anyways and let out a yawn rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. I turn my head so that I could gaze at her as she slowly began to wake up. When she finally looks at me I have a silly grin on my face and she smiles at me too. 

“Good morning.” I quietly whisper.

“Good morning to you too.” She whispers back.

“Want to walk with me to the fire pit? I want to make sure we didn’t leave any harmful evidence.” 

“Mmm give me a few minutes and then we can go.” She says before nuzzling back into my neck and places a small kiss on my pulse point. Butterflies erupt in my stomach at her action and I place a kiss of my own on top of her head. As we lay there for a few minutes I couldn’t be happier about what happened last night. I had been hoping all week that it would happen and when it finally did, I was ecstatic. I just hoped that Alex felt the same way as me. 

After a few minutes Alex carefully crawled out of bed, and I did the same trying to wake up Molly. We successfully got dressed without waking up any of our roommates and walked onto the porch. The storm last night had made a mess. I let out a huge sigh knowing it was going to be a long day of cleaning up. Limbs had fallen out of trees and were scattered everywhere, somehow the canoes had gotten in the water and were floating in the middle of the lake, other equipment was all over the grassy field, and the ground was super muddy from all the rain. Alex pleasantly surprises me when she takes my hand as we walk towards the fire pit. I follow her as she tries to lead us along the driest path. We reach the pit and notice a couple of beer bottles and plastic cups we had forgotten in our hurry to escape the rain. 

We clean up quickly and throw the trash in the garbage bin behind the pavilion. We walk into the pavilion and run into Abby and Christie. I completely forget that Alex and I are holding hands until I see Abby look at our joined hands and raises an eyebrow.

“Uhh umm.” I mumble out trying to think of an explanation. 

“It’s fine Tobs. Just don’t make it too obvious.” She says patting my shoulder and walking over to talk to Margaret behind the counter. I blush slightly and turn to Christie who’s got a small smirk on her face. 

“So what’s the game plan for the day.” I say trying to defuse the awkwardness.

“Well that storm definitely threw us for a number. We’re going to have a movie day here in the pavilion. You know set up a projector and just play it on the back wall and when the girls get tired of that we’ll play a few games. It’s just too messy to be out there. I know it sucks but I’m going to need you guys to clean up the area. We won’t be able to do anything outside until it’s cleaned up.” She says looking outside with a disappointed expression. 

“Yeah I knew that was going to happen as soon as I walked outside.” I say laughing.

“I hope you brought some shoes you don’t mind getting seriously muddy.” Christie says to Alex. 

“Umm.” She says looking down at her sneakers.

“It’s cool Christie I have a ton of old shoes I keep here.” I say.

“Alright sounds like your good to go. You should eat some breakfast before you get to work.” She says walking off with a smile and nod. 

“Ok you heard the woman lets get some grub.” I say rubbing my hands together. 

We pile our plates full of eggs, bacon, pancakes, and fruit. I have about double the amount of food on my plate as Alex by the time we sit down.

“I seriously don’t know how you eat so much and can still be that fit.” Alex says laughing and pointing to my plate.

“Maybe one day I’ll let you in on my secret.” I say mischievously. Truth was that I just had a fast metabolism and happened to work out a lot as well. We figured that out when I was a kid and my mom was always worried because I was a beanpole no matter how much I ate. 

We eat breakfast sending playful glances across the table towards each other and flirting here and there. One by one the other counselors trickle in searching for breakfast. Pinoe and Kelley come in slowly both wearing sunglasses even though it’s only 7:30. I see that Molly has a firm grip on Kelley’s hand and is leading her to our table. Molly climbs into my lap as Kelley lies against Alex. 

“Kelley are you ok?” Alex asks trying to stifle her laughter. 

“Yeah I just can’t wait to relax for the whole day.” She says gladly reaching for the cup of coffee that I push towards her. 

“Hate to be the bearer of bad news Kel, but that day of rest is going to have to wait. We have to clean up the whole campground from the storm last night.” I say and Kelley begins to fake cry. 

“What’s wrong with you Kel?” Pinoe asks setting down a plate for herself and Kelley. 

“I just found out we have to clean the whole campground.” Kelley grumbles. 

“Noooooooo.” Pinoe says and joins in on Kelley’s fake crying. We laugh at how unfortunate it is for them to have a hangover on today of all days. 

“I hate that storm.” Kelley complains.

“I don’t know I kinda liked it.” I say smirking at Alex causing her to blush. 

An hour later all of the counselors are standing with wheelbarrows looking at the mess that we had to clean up. I spot Ash and slosh through the grass over to her and hip check her once I’m next to her.

“I noticed you and a certain brunette disappeared last night pretty early.” I joke watching as her cheeks redden. “No way! You and Ali did it didn’t you?! Oh my gosh wait unti-“ I say laughing until she places her hand over my mouth. 

“Dude shut up!” She says and her cheeks at this point are flaming red.

“Come on just tell me if you finally got together! What has it been? Like 4 summers since you’ve had your eyes on her?” I taunt trying to draw an answer out of her. 

“Yeah.” She says really quietly under her breath. 

“What was that I didn’t hear you?” 

“Yes we did it! Ok happy??” She finally admits. 

“Yeah I’m actually really happy for you. It’s about damn time.” I say wrapping an arm around her shoulder while she’s got a goofy grin on her face. 

“What about you and your woman??” She asks as we pick up a couple of branches.   
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I say as I take a glance at Alex helping Syd and Ali pick up limbs. 

“Oh please. I think you’re worse off then I am, and that’s saying something. Plus I saw you snuggling this morning in bed.” She says smugly. 

“She got scared during the thunderstorm.” 

“And I’m sure that was a tough decision for you to make.” 

“I didn’t want to hurt her feelings by turning her away.” I say shrugging my shoulders and smiling making Ashlyn break out into laughter. Alex and Ali look over at us as we laughed loudly and smile at us. I send a wink her way and turn back to Ashlyn.

“We’re good Ash, thanks for asking.” 

She smiles and places her arm around my neck so that we’re leaning on each and turns us so we could watch our girls as they are walking back from the fire pit. We must look like idiots smiling goofily and waving at them, but honestly I don’t think either of us care.


	9. Chapter 9

Alex’s POV

As I slosh through the mud I’m really grateful that Tobin had let me borrow her shoes and that I actually fit into them. I sneak a glance at her and see that her and Ash are whispering to one another. I smile when I see that goofy grin cross her face. Last night was so freaking awesome. How is it possible that I’ve only known Tobin for a week and I already have feelings for her? I continue to stare at her until I feel a tap on my shoulder. I snap out of it and turn to find Ali smirking at me. 

“You should take a picture it last longer.” She says teasingly. 

“ I could say the same for you.” I say giving it right back to her.

We both laugh and look at Tobin and Ash who are leaning against one another smiling goofily and waving at us. Tobin winks at me and I all but swoon at how hot she looks when she does that. 

“We had to pick the dorkiest of the bunch didn’t we?” I hear Ali jokingly says as we watch them slip and slide against each other. 

“Yeah but I’ll take that dork over anyone any day.” I say and realize it’s the truth. I remember about Servando at home and remind myself to call him when I got the chance. We were taking a break because I couldn’t stand how clingy he had become in the few months we had dated. He was a nice guy but now I realize that I didn’t actually have real feelings for him. Tobin was completely different from him and I loved that. She made me laugh at the simplest things and was the most selfless person that I had ever met. 

I’m still deep in thought about Tobin and our current situation when I feel something splatter across my back. Ali starts laughing uncontrollably and I raise a hand to see what it is and it comes back covered in mud. I spin around looking for the culprit and see that Tobin and Ash had made a barrier with a canoe and were crouching behind it. Ali is too busy laughing at my face and doesn’t notice when Ash stands and throws a hunk of mud her way. She gasps when it hits her right in the chest and mud covers her entire front. 

I look back at them and they fist bump each other and laugh. I turn to Ali and without even needing words we reach down, scoop up a ton of mud, and charge at the two of them. I throw a handful of mud and hit Tobin in the side of the head as she is talking to Ash. With mud plastering one side of her face she stands up and a crooked smile makes its way across her face. 

“MUD FIGHT!!” She shouts at the top of her lungs before starting to throw mud at anyone within striking distance. Ali and I run towards them and join them behind the barrier and start targeting people. Kelley is the first to get hit and she dramatically falls to the ground.

“I’ve been shot!!” 

Hope picks her up and sends a handful of mud with deadly accuracy towards Tobin. It hits her right over her heart and makes her have to catch herself from the force of it. Soon the other girls have joined in on it, except Syd she went running for the cabins as soon as she heard Tobin say mud fight. Lori and Pinoe were trying to sneak around our flank but Ash and I bombard them before they could get too close. The girls give up on trying to break through our fortress and turn onto each other. 

 

Tobin is busy still trying to hit Kelley in the head so I take the opportunity to gather up a HUGE pile of mud and drop it on top of her head. Tobin gasps at the sensation of mud running down her face and back before turning slowly around to face me. I laugh at how stupid she looks with mud covering her whole head and half of her face.

“Do you know what Ash and I do with traitors??” She asks slowly standing up.

“What?” I say backing away from her.

“They get dumped into the lake!” She says lunging at me. I wasn’t able to move fast enough and she locks me in a tight embrace and picks me up.

“No! Tobin! No stop!” I shout between fits of laughter as she walks quickly onto the dock. 

She tries to throw me in but I had my arms tightly wrapped around her neck holding on for dear life. She looks down at me smiling before shrugging her shoulders and jumping in the water with me in her arms. I break the surface of the water laughing but stop when I look around and Tobin is nowhere in sight.

“Tobin? Tobin?!” I yell freaking out that she hadn’t come up yet. 

“Yeah?” I hear a voice above me say.

I spin around in the water and see a dripping wet Tobin bending over the deck smiling at me. 

“How did you get up there?!” I demanded.

“I swam underwater and climbed out behind those rocks over there.” She says pointing. 

“I thought you drowned!” I shout at her.

“Sorry for scaring you.” She says smiling crookedly at me. 

Before I could say anything Tobin gets mud slapped on her back and falls into the lake. Kelley is standing triumphantly on the dock wiping the mud off of her hands. Tobin comes up spluttering and blinking water out of her eyes. 

“You know Tobs, you should really watch your back when a war is going on.” Kelley says cockily. 

“Sorry Kel I had a traitor in our ranks that had to be taken care of.” She says pointing a thumb towards me. 

I watch Tobin as she puts an arm up and holds onto the end of the dock beaming at me. I swim over to her and place myself within a few inches of her face. I see her glance at my lips biting her own and looks around to see if anyone was near. When she sees that no one is paying attention she leans in and kisses me gently. I return the kiss and smile when she pulls back after a few moments.   
“We should get going. Abby would kill us if she saw us kissing where any of the younger girls could see us.” She says still staring at my lips. 

“Then stop looking at me like that.” 

“Sorry. I can’t help it if your lips look so kissable.” She says smirking 

I laugh and splash Tobin with water and make my way towards the shore, but try and wipe off all the mud off first. 

“Man I need a shower.” Tobin says holding her arms out to the side as we walk back to the cabin. 

“Yeah you kind of stink.” I joke.

“Pshh I’m pretty sure you smell worse then me.” She says chuckling bumping her shoulder against mine. 

When we get closer to the cabins Tobin goes ahead and takes off her shirt leaving her only in a Nike shorts and a sports bra. My steps stutter as my eyes roam over her toned fit body. She looks over her shoulder and smirks when she see’s I’m not even hiding that I’m totally checking her out. 

“See something you like?” She says cheekily. 

“Maybe.” I say and walk past Tobin stripping off my shirt. I look behind me and Tobin is in the same spot staring at me with her jaw dropped. I watch as her eyes travel up my body and finally reach my face. Her ears are slightly red but she gives me a goofy grin anyways. I smile at her and practically skip into the camp to go and clean up after our impromptu mud fight.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys I'm back! I finished up finals so I should be able to update more regularly now! Hope you enjoy!

Every Sunday we send off letters to the parents from all the kids in our cabins. Ash had a Polaroid camera, which was awesome so that the kids could send home pictures of what they had been doing and the friends they had made. I went around collecting the letters through one of our cabins. When I get to Molly she’s sitting on her bed with no letter in sight. 

“Molly did you not want to write to your parents?” I ask and she just shakes her head. Confused I continue to collect letters and bring them to Christie in the main house. I hand over the stack of letters to her and look out the window to see Molly kicking rocks into the lake.

“Hey Christie do you know why Molly doesn’t write to her parents?”

“Molly is the charity kid.” Christie says without looking up from her work.

“What?” I say spinning around and watching Molly outside. 

“Tobin you that every summer we bring in a kid for the summer that would normally not get the chance to.” 

“Yes I know Christie but what happened to her?” Christie puts down the mail and looks at me. 

“She lives in an orphanage 2 hours away from here. Here parents and sister died in a plane crash a couple of years ago. She had no other family and has been jumping from foster home to orphanage every few months.” Christie sadly tells me and my heart breaks when I hear what Molly has had to endure. 

“Well that explains why she doesn’t really talk.”

“Abby and I thought she was the best candidate when we went to the orphanage. You know I’ve noticed that she’s attached to you pretty quickly.”

“Yeah I don’t know why but she has.” I say glancing outside but do a double take and start smiling when I see Alex standing next to Molly and holding her hand. 

I don’t realize how long I stood there looking out the window at the pair until I feel a hand on my shoulder. I jump and guiltily turn around to see Abby not Christie looking down at me. 

“If you keep staring outside with that kind of intensity you’re going to break the window.” 

“Sorry.” I mumble out. 

“I don’t care kid I just don’t want to see you hurt like last time again.” She says looking at me sincerely. I blush and bow my head before looking out the window again.

“She’s different.” I say.

Abby lets out a sigh patting my shoulder and walking off to help Christie. A sudden idea pops into my head and I rush over to Christie and Abby. 

“Can I drop the letters off in town?” They turned and looked at me suspiciously because in all the years I had been here I had never offered before. 

“Why?” They ask in unison.

“I want to bring Molly to go get some ice cream.”

“Tobin you know we cant play favorites.” Abby says. 

“I know but come on guys. She lost all of her family and probably hasn’t had a lot of highlights in her life the past two years. Please let me make her happy for a little while, she deserves it. “ I say quickly and give them the most pleading look I can muster. 

“Fine!” Christie says throwing her hands up in the air. 

“Awesome! Thanks!” I say running out the door and jumping off the porch. I jog off quickly back to our cabin to grab my wallet and am about to run out when I bump into Syd. 

“Woh slow down! Where are you off to in such a hurry?” 

“I’m going into town to drop off the letters.”

“Are you serious?! I never thought Abby or Christie would ever let one of us do that! Wait! Can you pick up some alcohol??” 

“Ummmm.”

“C’mon Tobs! We blew through it all on Friday! Do you seriously want to go through this entire summer without any alcohol?” She pleads sticking her lip out and giving me puppy dog eyes. 

“Fineeeee. What do you want?” I ask caving in. 

“Let me write it down!” She says excitedly and starts writing on a piece of paper before handing it over to me. 

“Christ Syd how much do you plan on drinking?” I ask scanning over her detailed list. 

“Well I don’t know if we’ll be able to make an alcohol run for the next month!” She says defending herself. “Thanks Tobs!” She says smiling and walking out causing me to chuckle at her. 

I tuck the list into my wallet and leave to find Molly. I find her as she is walking back to her cabin. 

“Hey Molly!” I yell out and jogging up to her. She turns around and grins brightly when she sees its me. She runs and wraps her arms around my leg once I am in front of her. Chuckling, I squat down next to her so we are eye to eye. 

“Want to go on an adventure with me?” I ask and watch her bright blue eyes light up while she nods her head excitedly. I laugh and put her on my back and walk to the main house to grab the letters from Christie. She hands the letters and the keys to Abby’s jeep. We run and jump into the car and start to drive down the road. I sneak a glance at Molly and beam when I see that she is basically jumping in her seat with eagerness. I roll down the windows and put some tunes on as we drive into town. 

When we reach town we drop off the letters first to get that out of the way. A mile or two down from the post office is this really cute ice cream shop. I pull in and watch Molly’s face light up with joy. I park the car and walk around taking her hand in mine before walking into the shop. I get a vanilla cone and after asking Molly what she wanted, I get her a chocolate waffle cone with sprinkles and a cherry on top. We sit outside underneath the umbrellas. Molly basically inhales her ice cream and I chuckle at her enthusiasm. After finishing off our ice cream and are on the road, I make an abrupt turn into a supermarket. 

“What are we doing here Toby?” Molly asks looking at me in confusion. 

“We are on a mission to get some food so I can make dinner tonight.” I respond back to her pulling into a parking spot. As we were passing the store I decided to make dinner tonight for Alex and I. I couldn’t take her out on an actual date but I could cook for her and maybe make her feel special. Molly hops onto one of the carts and I push her into the store and pause wandering what I’m going to make for tonight.

“Why are you making dinner tonight? Mrs. Margaret makes us all dinner.” Molly says. 

“I want to make a special dinner.” I say making my way to the produce section. 

“For Mrs. Alex?” Molly asks and my footsteps stutter slightly.

“Yes for Alex.”

“Do you like Mrs. Alex?” She asks and I feel myself blushing at Molly’s statement. 

“Uhhh…”

“Because I think you should. She’s really pretty and nice.” She says simply as she jumps off the cart and walks up to the strawberries. I watch her walk off and just start chuckling at how well a 10 year old had read my actions. I guess her being quiet had left a lot of room for her to just observe everyone and everything. 

“Hey Molly I have one more mission for you when we get back to camp.” I call out to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may have been a bit short but I had to get Molly's back story out there. Tell me what you think and I'm working on the next chapter for this and A Place To Call Home right now!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys I was at another place with no wifi so I couldn't upload!

Alex’s POV

I haven’t seen Tobin since she went off to gather letters this morning from the girls, and now I couldn’t find her anywhere. I asked some of the girls where she was and they didn’t know either. I sighed and sit on the porch wandering where she possibly could have gone to when something caught my eye down the path. Sydney and Pinoe were running as fast as they could with stuff underneath their shirts and I start to chuckle as I watched them struggle. Pinoe suddenly lets out a shriek as I notice a bottle fall down her body but she catches it with her foot before letting it roll onto the ground. I hurry over to help them and pick up the bottle glancing at it as I break out into laughter. It’s a bottle of Sky vodka. 

“Again guys?? Really?” I ask

“What? Don’t act like you didn’t have fun on Friday because we know you did.” Syd says wiggling her eyes suggestively. 

“Yeah how was the rest of your night?” Pinoe asks with a devilish smile on her face. 

“I don’t kiss and tell.” I say before walking off with the bottle of Sky still in my hands. I hear squeals behind me and hear them running to catch up with me. 

“I knew it!” Syd exclaims.

“Oh please. I knew the first night at dinner that Tobs was totally into you. She couldn’t keep her eyes off you.” Pinoe says flicking her hand dramatically but hurries to put it back in place so no more bottles would fall. 

“Oh my gosh shut up guys.” I say blushing just a little. “Hey where the heck did you guys get this alcohol anyways? I’m pretty sure that this wasn’t stashed away in the kitchen.” 

“Your girl went into town to drop off the letters and I gave her a list so we can stock up on alcohol again. This will probably last us until the break halfway through summer.” Syd says thinking it over. 

“That’s where Tobin has been? No wonder I couldn’t find her. Ok well I’m going to go see her. Here Syd!” I say pushing the bottle of Sky into her already full hands and jogging off. 

“Go get that sexy beast of yours!” Pinoe shouts out making me shake my head and chuckle. 

I get to the main house and Tobin is nowhere in sight. Confused I search around the whole camp and can’t find her anywhere. The dinner bell rings and I head towards the pavilion knowing Tobin didn’t ever miss meals. I’m about halfway to it when I feel something latch onto my leg. I look down and see Molly wrapped around my leg smiling at me. 

“Hey Molly.” I say smiling back at her. I was so happy to see her slowly opening up to me. Molly lets go of my leg and stands in front of me straightening her neck at so she looks tall and important. From behind her back she pulls out a note and hands it to me. The moment I take it, Molly runs off in the opposite direction. Confused I look down at the note in my hand. 

Don’t go to dinner at 5.  
Meet in the pavilion at 7  
For a special surprise.  
-Your secret admirer 

I beam when I finish reading the note wandering what Tobin was planning. I spin around on my heel and walk back to our cabin. I’m thinking about what I should wear when I start to laugh realizing I only have nike shorts and t-shirts. I settle on a shower and a clean pair shorts and t-shirt. I wait not so patiently for 7 to roll around, but at 6:45 I cant stand it anymore and I start walking towards the pavilion. The sun is already starting to go down and it covered the camp in a warm glow. 

When the pavilion is in my line of view, I immediately notice a difference in it. As I got closer I see that Tobin had pushed back some tables to allow one table to be alone in the center with a white table clothe and candles on it. Next to the table she had wine chilling in an ice bucket. She also had strung lights above the table adding a romantic ambiance to the occasion. I’m admiring what she has done when I hear someone walk out of the kitchen. I turn around and find Tobin smiling nervously at me with two plates of food in her hands. 

“Hey you’re a little early. I was going to have everything set up and ready.” She says smiling at me and placing the two plates, which by the way looked delicious, on the table. She walks up to me taking my hand and gives me a small kiss on the cheek before leading me to my seat. Once I’ve sat down Tobin begins to open up the wine bottle. 

"You look beautiful by the way." She says to me. 

"I'm in nike shorts and a t-shirt." I deadpan. 

"I repeat you look beautiful." She says smiling and I smile back at her before turning my attention to the plate she placed on the table. 

“Tobin this looks amazing! How did you do this so fast?” I ask in awe.

“Well I got some help from Ash with setting up so that I could cook. And I sweet talked Mrs. Margaret into letting me use her kitchen if I promised to clean up afterwards.” She said while pouring me a glass of wine. She pours herself a glass and sits down putting a napkin in her lap. I giggle at her action and her head pops up with a smirk on her face. 

“What?”

“I just thought it was funny you put your napkin in your lap like we’re at a restaurant.” I say.

“Well you know this is the best restaurant in town and I would hate to not have manners in an establishment such as this.” She says causing me to giggle. I turn my attention to the food.

“Mmm Tobin this looks delicious. What is it??” I say picking up my fork. 

“That is pan seared Ahi tuna with a light sauce on a bed of bean sprouts with a side of avocado salsa.” She says simply which causes me to raise an eyebrow. She just smiles at me and I take my first bite and it practically melts into my mouth. 

“Tobin you should have been a chef. I’ve never tasted something this good before.” I say taking another bite. 

“Actually I uh just finished up culinary school before the summer started. I was able to come this summer because my internship doesn’t start until August.” 

“Oh my gosh that’s amazing! Well no wonder this is so good.” I say laughing and she joins in by chuckling. I eat the rest of my fabulous dinner and drink the wine that paired with the fish perfectly while Tobin and I talked non-stop. She was fully attentive towards me throughout the whole dinner, refilling my wine glass, listening to me talk, and making me laugh. When we’ve finished dinner and are sitting for a few minutes Tobin stands and picks up her plate and mine. I try to help her but she tells me to stay and she would be right back. She comes back a couple of minutes later with another two plates. This time it has what looks like chocolate cake and ice cream. 

“What does Chef Tobin have now?” I ask with a smile. 

“This is a chocolate raspberry layer cake with a chocolate ganache and honey vanilla ice cream.” She says placing the plate down in front of me. She looks at me biting her lip nervously as I’m about to take a bite. 

“It’s not poisoned is it?” I ask jokingly because she’s still watching me. 

“No” She said cracking a smile and sitting down and turning to her own plate. I take a spoonful of the cake and almost fall to the ground at how spectacular it is. I hurry and get another spoonful this time adding a little bit of the ice cream to it. I moan in absolute delight at the flavors that are flooding my mouth. 

“Tobin. You have to teach me how to cook this. Oh my god it’s so good!” I say taking another bite and look up to find her shyly smiling at me. 

“I think I can handle that.”

We finish the dessert pretty quickly and put our dishes away. Tobin had already cleaned the kitchen prior to me arriving so the only dirty things were our plates, silverware, and glasses. Once we’ve finished cleaning up we go back to the table and sit down. I can feel Tobin’s eyes on me so I turn my head and look at her. She smiles at me and stands walking around the table and holding out her hand. 

“Will you come with me somewhere?” She asks and I place my hand in hers and stand. 

“I’ll go with you anywhere.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys so I'm really sorry it's taken me this long to update but I've had writers block on both of my stories. I'm working on A Place to Call Home right now and I'm hoping to get it out before this weekend (because there is so much soccer to watch) but no promises!

Tobin’s POV

I take Alex’s hand and lead her out of the pavilion and start walking in the direction of the woods. I’m giddy with excitement over what I was about to show her. I’m pretty sure only me and Kelley knew where it was even though people had heard about it through the grapevine. As we get closer to the entrance of the woods I scout around to make sure no one is around to see where we were going. When I see that the coast is clear I move a large branch out of the way and motion for Alex to walk into the woods. 

“Tobin why are you acting so suspiciously?” Alex asks as she walks by me in the woods. 

“Because I don’t want people to know where we are going.” I say grabbing her hand again and sending a wink her way. 

It’s already dark outside, but I know this trail by heart. The moonlight gives me just the amount of light that I need. When I realize that we are getting closer I stop and spin around to Alex smiling at her. 

“Ok I need to put this on you.” I say holding out the blindfold in my hand. 

“Where are you taking me?” She laughs but turning around allowing me to put on the blindfold. 

“Well if I told you it wouldn’t be a secret would it?” I ask tying the blindfold. 

I take her hand and lead her the rest of the way carefully guiding her so she wouldn’t trip on anything along the way. Once we are at the designated area I take a quick look around and admire it before slowly slipping the blindfold off of Alex. When I do I watch Alex’s face as it marvels at the beauty surrounding us. 

“Welcome to paradise.” I say smiling and raising my arms. 

The first thing that would catch anyone’s attention is the amount of plant life that is glowing around us. Most of the trees that surrounded us were covered in a type of glowing fungi. There was a small brook that had many rotten limbs around it that were also covered in glowing mushrooms causing the flowing water to have a strange but beautiful glow to it. Even just the grass was glowing in certain spots. Fireflies were scattered around the entire everywhere adding their own small amount of brightness to the beauty of the area. On the outskirts of the luminous area was an old cabin that had been there since I had first discovered the place. 

“Tobin.” Alex says in disbelief looking around the area. 

“I know. It’s pretty cool huh?” 

“Cool? This is absolutely beautiful.” She says bending down to touch one of the glowing mushrooms. 

“Don’t do that!” I say and stop her before she touches it. 

“What? What’s wrong?” Alex says looking confused.

“That mushroom is poisonous.”

“Really?”

“Yeah that right there is Mycena maculata, and then over there is Mycena sanguinolenta, Omphalotus olivascens, and Panellus stipticus.” I say pointing out all the different types of luminous fungi. Alex doesn’t say anything so I glance at her and see that she is staring at me as if I had two heads. 

“I had to take a couple of fungi classes in culinary school.” I explain with a shrug of my shoulders. 

“Come on let’s sit down.” I say leading her to the old cabin. On the small porch are two chairs and we each sit in one enjoying the view. 

“How did you find this place Tobin?” 

“A couple of years ago I was out on my morning and run and I had waken up earlier than usual so it was still dark outside. I decided to switch it up and try and make a new path because the one I always ran was starting to get boring. So I’m running through this area and I notice that everything has a glowing tinge to it. It was nowhere as bright as it is now but I could notice it in the dim light. So I stopped and checked it out because I was really curious. When I realized they were glowing I decided to come back that night to check it out. It took me a while to realize where I was but then I finally found this.” I say motioning to everything in front of me. 

“I have never seen anything like this before in my life.” Alex says still in awe. 

“Yeah I know it makes me feel like I’m in Avatar.” I say which makes Alex laugh. 

“What about this cabin? Did you build it?” She asks. 

“No this was here when I first found this place. I did fix it up last summer though. After the first session of camp we have about a week before the new kids get in so I spent that time fixing this up. I patched up the roof so there were no more leaks, cleaned all of the dirt and mold out on the inside, and fixed the porch. I also snuck a couple of things from the camp’s pretty big storage area.” I say chuckling. 

“What did you take??”

“Um let’s see these two chairs plus two other ones inside, a wood table, a bed that was broken but I fixed it and the coolest part was an old staircase that I turned into a book shelf.” 

“Wow it sounds like you could live in it.”

“Maybe for like a day.” I chuckle. 

“Does any one else know about this place?” She asks. 

“I’m pretty sure that only Kelley and I know about this place. Well us and you now.”

“Thank you for showing me.” Alex says and leans over placing a light kiss on my cheek. I turn my head slightly wanting to connect my lips with hers, but she pulls away before I can. 

“Uh uh uh. I don’t kiss on first dates.”

“What? Oh come on Lex you’ve already kissed me!” I protest.

“I guess you’re going to have to wait a little longer.” She says teasingly and walks off the porch. She doesn’t get very far though because I chase after her and throw my arms around her waist spinning her around so she’s facing me. 

“I think you can make an exception.” I say so close to her that my lips barely brush hers before fully connecting. She doesn’t even put up a fight, the moment my lips touch hers she sighs and wraps her arms around my neck dragging me closer to her. I run my fingers through her silky hair and kiss her hard. At first she kisses me tentatively but soon I feel her tongue dance across my lips, begging for entrance to my mouth. It became a drawn-out, lingering kiss that neither of us seemed able to break. Lost in the moment Alex moaned softly, before realizing the sound she'd just made she pulled away, embarrassed.

“What?” I ask out of breath from our kiss. My lord the things this woman could do to me with just a kiss. 

“I just I I- I’m sorry.” She says getting redder by the minute. Utterly confused I put one of my hands along her jaw line and tilt her face up so I could read her expression in the glowing light. 

“Why are you sorry?”

“Gosh this is so embarrassing. I’ve um I’ve never kissed a girl like that before.” She says whispering the last sentence. 

“And?” I asks trying to keep up a chill front but on the inside I was totally freaking out. Is she straight? Damn did I read this entire situation wrong? What if she just wanted to experiment? 

“ I don’t know! I just-“

“Do you like me?”

“Yes.” She says turning even redder. 

“Well I like you too there’s nothing really else to it.” 

“Ok.” She says with the smallest possible smile on her face. 

“Sorry for freaking out on you. Other than a couple of college parties and the other day with you I’ve never kissed a girl before and they were definitely not like that.” She says sighing and running a hand through her hair before smiling at me. 

“We can slow it down.” I say placing a light kiss on her lips. 

“No one’s every made me weak at the knees just from a kiss.” She shyly states making me beam.

“It must be my mad skills.” I say winking at her making her laugh. 

“Come on its getting late we should head back.” I say gently intertwining our hands and leading the way back careful not to step on any of the luminous plant life.

We sneak into our cabin careful not to wake up Ashlyn and Kelley and quickly change into our sleepwear. I’m climbing into bed when I feel Alex tap my shoulder. I turn to see her standing by my bed twisting her fingers nervously. I just smile and scoot over holding the blankets up giving her permission to get in. She does with a huge grin on her face and cuddles up next to me placing her head on my shoulder. I wrap an arm around her waist and kiss her forehead softly. She nuzzles her face into my neck and soon I can hear her breathing get deeper as she drifts off to sleep. I shortly fall asleep after her completely content on this new sleeping arrangement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed it! Leave any suggestions or what you think will happen in the next few chapters!


	13. Chapter 13

Tobin’s POV 

I feel something tickling my nose and with my eyes still closed I swat at whatever it was thinking that it was a piece of Alex’s hair. I try and fall back asleep snuggling further into Alex’s embrace but the tickling feeling on my nose happens again. This time I open my eyes and see a finger lightly scratching my nose. Looking past the finger I see that the owner of it is none other then Kelley O’Hara. When she sees that I have finally spotted her she gives me an impish grin while motioning at Alex and me. She motions once again for me to follow her outside and I roll my eyes while slowly disconnecting myself from Alex’s grasp. We walk onto the porch and Kelley spins around just smiling at me.

“Sooooooo?”

“Sooooooo?”

“Oh come on Tobin spit it out! You’re totally into Alex! Ashlyn told me that she helped you set up the pavilion and that you cooked Alex dinner. Which by the way kind of insulated that you wouldn’t ask me to help and my stomach hates you for not cooking anything extra and giving it to me.” Kelley says frowning slightly and rubbing her stomach. 

“Kelley, Ashlyn was the only one tall enough besides Abby to hang up those lights. If you were six inches taller buddy I would have gotten you to do them.”

“What about the food.” She says raising an eyebrow. 

“Next time I cook I’ll make sure to make you some.” I say smiling.

“Oh so there is definitely going to be a next time??”

At this statement I sigh and rub the back of my neck. The playful look on Kelley’s face drops and now it’s replaced with one of concern. I sit down on the porch steps and pat the spot next to me. 

“I’m not sure about anything at this point.”

“What do you mean?” Kelley asks confused. 

“I mean that when I kissed her last night, like an actual kiss not just a couple of seconds, she freaked out and told me that she’s only ever briefly kissed a girl before. Kelley what if she’s like Nikki? I don’t know how to proceed Kelley.” I say dropping my head into my hands completely missing the look of shock on Kelley’s face. 

“I can vouch for Alex when I say she is nothing like Nikki Tobs.” Kelley says sincerely. 

“But what if she is? Kelley I can’t do that again.”

“Tobin.” Kelley says picking my face up from its place in my hands and turning it to look at her. 

“Do you like Alex?”

“Yes but-“

“Uh uh no buts. Do you like Alex?” Kelley reiterates.

“Yes.”

“Then go after her. Use that Heath charm I’ve seen work on countless girls in bars.” She says and I smirk a little. 

“If it’s any help at all she wont ever shut up about you when it’s just the two of us. She’s always asking questions about you so obviously she’s really interested in you. Don’t doubt yourself dude. You’re a freaking catch and Alex knows that so put on your big girl panties and go win over that girl’s heart.” Kelley tries saying in a motivating voice. 

“Thanks coach.” I say smiling

“Eh I’ve seen Remember the Titans a million times.” Kelley says with a flick of the wrist.

“Wait why were you up this early anyways?” I ask glancing at my watch and seeing that it’s 5:57.

“I was going to go for a run but then I saw that there was more than one person in your bed and you had your arms around a certain brunette.” She says shrugging her shoulders. I laugh and give her a soft push on the arm. 

“So I’m guessing, also kind of pleading, that you guys didn’t do the nasty while me and Ash were innocently sleeping??” She asks and this time I give her a hard punch.

“Jesus Christ Tobs! What was that for?!”

“I just finished telling you that she freaked out over a kiss! And then you think we had sex?? Geeze Kelley I wouldn’t do that.”

“Well a girl’s gotta ask. I mean you used to take a girl home from the bar all the time!” Kelley says a little defensively while rubbing her arm. 

“You know I didn’t care about those girls. Plus that was only after Nikki.”

“Well although my arm is stinging and will probably have a bruise, I’m really happy for you Tobs.” She says slinging an arm around my shoulders. 

“Thanks Kell.” I say and we sit there for a while watching the sun come up over the lake. We must have sat there for 30 minutes when we see Abby walking up the path. 

“Hey Abby! Whatcha doing?” Kelley asks once she is close enough to where we didn’t have to shout. 

“Oh I was just walking around making sure everything is alright. I was also trying to come up with something we could do today. The ground is still really muddy from the rain the other day” Abby says looking out at the yard. We sit and think over it for a second and an idea pops into my brain when I see a large patch of mud on the far side of the yard. 

“I’ve got it! A tug of war competition!” I say excitedly and Kelley and Abby both look up at me. 

“We could use that area over there.” I said pointing across the yard. “That way we don’t tear up the grass. Come on it would be so cool! The losers get pulled into the big mud pit!

“We’ve never done a tug of war before.” Abby says thinking it over. 

“It can be cabin against cabin and the champions could win umm getting served food first for the next week!” Kelley says getting into it. 

“What is it with you and food.” I asks turning to her. 

“Ok sorry my years of playing soccer at Stanford has hard wired my brain into using food as bribery and rewards.” She says looking at me like I was stupid. 

“You know what this sounds like an awesome idea actually. I’m going to go run it over with Christie and see if we can get this set up. Thanks girls!“ Abby says and turns around to start walking to the main house. 

“This is going to be so awesome.” I say.

“Yes! Ok Tobin we need to go and carb up!” She says and starts off towards the pavilion. 

“Wait I thought you were going for a run?”

“I’ve gotta save my energy for this tug of war war. I’m not missing out on getting served food first duh Tobin.”

“Ok I’ll meet you there in a second!” I say turning around to go back into the cabin. 

I change quickly and quietly and sit down lightly on my bed. I run my fingers along the edge of Alex’s hairline before giving her a small kiss on the lips. When I pull back I see that she is sleepily staring up at me. 

“Ready to go get some breakfast?” I whisper while smiling gently at her. 

She nods her head and I get off the bed and wait on the porch until she is done changing. When she comes out she immediately grabs my hand and we begin walking. I take our intertwined hands and raise them so that I could kiss the back of her hand. She blushes slightly and I just send a wink her way. While walking I notice that Molly is waiting for us on the porch with Kelley. 

“I thought you were getting breakfast?” I ask Kelley.

“I am but then I saw Molly and she told me she waits for you and Alex every morning so that you can eat breakfast together.” She says.

“Yeah we do! Don’t we Molly?” I say and Molly runs over to Alex and me. I let go of Alex’s hand momentarily so that I could lift Molly up on my shoulders where she is giggling happily. I retake Alex’s hand in mine and we take off walking again. 

We are the first ones at breakfast, like usual, and Kelley and I start to get our food while Alex and Molly get the drinks. 

“So that was pretty fucking cute back there.” Kelley says to me while scooping some eggs onto her plate. 

“That kid has wormed her way into my heart. Seriously she’s probably my favorite out of everyone since I started being a councelor here.” I say. 

“Really? And you eat breakfast together every morning?”

“I like eating breakfast with Alex and Molly. It’s actually one of my favorite parts of the day.”

“But Molly doesn’t really talk.”

“She never shuts up when it comes to breakfast.” I say laughing lightly because it was true. After the first few mornings of eating breakfast together Molly couldn’t stop talking. She constantly asked Alex and I questions about anything you could think of. 

We eat our breakfast while Molly fire away questions at all of us, Kelley included. The rest of the camp slowly trickles into the pavilion and starts to eat breakfast. By the time that everyone was there for breakfast, Abby and Christie came in to say that today would involve a tug of war competition between all of the cabins. A murmur of excitement goes through all of the girls. 

“Hell yes!” Pinoe exclaims.

“This is going to be epic.” Ash says excitedly.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while hasn't it??

“So what’s the game plan?” Kelley asks as soon as Abby and Christie stops talking. 

“Do we need a game plan for tug of war? Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t we just pulling a rope?” Alex asks.

“Just pulling a rope? Alex this is a chance to get served food first for a whole week… we do not take situations like this lightly.” Kelley says looking at Alex like she’s crazy

“Woh sorry I forgot you get feisty over your food.” Alex chuckles raising her hands in the air in surrender. 

“Now that that’s settled, what’s the game plan?”

“Um how about we just spread out evenly between all of the girls.” I say picking at the crust of my toast. 

“Great proposal Toby!” Kelley exclaims. 

“How about all the counselors hang out in the back and then we put he kids in the front ranging from the smallest to largest?” Ash asks as she takes a bite of her eggs. 

“Even better Ash!”

“Don’t you think you’re getting a little too excited for this?” I ask. 

“Gasp! Tobin! I though you of all people would realize how important this is to me. Do I need to remind you of the great tator tot fight of 2011?” Kelley says squinting her eyes at me. I roll my eyes and chuckle when I remember that tator tot fight 4 years ago.

“No you don’t, trust me. I think I had minced potato in my hair for a week.” I say

“Good! Now that we’re on the same page, eat up ladies! We need our energy!” 

“I forgot how competitive you can be Kel.” Alex says. 

“Don’t underestimate me because of my size. I may be small but I’m ferociou-“ Kelley says but all of a sudden halts in her speech and stares at something with her mouth open. 

All of us turn to see what she is looking at and see that it is a small brown haired girl that just walked through the door. We turn back to Kelley and see that she is still transfixed on that girl. Ash waves her hand in front of Kel’s face and that finally breaks her daze. 

“Who is that? I’ve never seen her here before.” Kelley says looking at us for answers before turning her attention back to the mystery girl. 

“Well obviously she’s new or else you would be banged up pretty good from running into everything because you can’t stop staring.” I say looking at the girl myself. 

“I have to talk to her.” Kelley says glancing around the table. 

“Well here’s your chance, she’s coming this way.” Alex says motioning with her fork. 

“What!”

We glance as quick as we can and confirm what Alex says. Abby is leading the mystery girl over to our table. 

“Hi ladies! I’d like to introduce Ann; she’s going to be taking the place of Hannah in cabin green. It would be awesome if you can show her the ropes until I can introduce her to Pinoe, Lori, and HAO. Thanks ladies.” She said patting me on the back before turning around and going outside. Ann stands there awkwardly for a second before Ash stands up to shake her hand. 

“Hi Ann I’m Ashlyn its nice to meet you!” 

“Hi Ash its nice to meet you too.” Ann says and we all notice right away that she has the softest, gentlest voice. 

“This is Alex, Tobin, and Kelley. We are all in cabin blue together.”

“It’s nice to meet you all.” She says, her eyes lingering on Kelley. 

“YO! Ann!” 

We spin in our seats and see Pinoe and Lori waving Ann over to join them in the doorway. 

“That looks like my new cabin. I’ll see you guys later!” She says smiling at us before going to join her cabin’s table. 

“Kelley I think you have a little something on your chin.” Alex says. 

“Oh what is it??” She says wiping at her chin.

“Probably drool.” I giggle and Kelley smacks me in the shoulder. 

“Alright guys!” Abby calls out to get the attention of the pavilion. “We’re going to meet outside on the edge of the field in 15 minutes to get the tug of war competition started.” She says and walks out the door. 

“Since you guys suck, I’m going to go round up the girls.” Kelley says sticking her tongue out at us before starting to gather the girls. Not without glancing at the new girl’s, Ann, table. I sigh and stand to join Kelley. 

“Lets do this!” I say clapping my hands together. 

15 minutes later we find ourselves on the field broken up by cabins. Our cabin has been picked by Abby to go first, and as fate would have it, we are facing up against Pinoe’s cabin. Alex and I are standing away from the rest of the group observing what was going on. 

“I honestly don’t know who is more competitive right now, Kelley and Ash or Pinoe and Lori.” I whisper to Alex. At the moment the two pairs were talking trash to each other. The moment Ash saw the huge mud puddle she got super amped. 

“You ready to go down?” Kelley asks. 

“Pshhh please as if! I’ve got the guns over here.” Pinoe says pointing to Lori standing next to her. “And I feel like little Ann over here has got something up her sleeve!” She says and Ann blushes slightly. 

“We have muscle and height!” Kelley says pointing to Ash. “And Alex is our secret weapon.”

“Yeah plus you guys have chicken leg Pinoe on your team.” Ash calls out. All of the counselors, who had been listening in on trash talk, busted out laughing at Ash’s comment. 

“They are not that tiny!” Pinoe says indignantly. 

“Alright girls that’s enough.” Abby says and Kelley restricts herself from making a come back, but opts out for sticking her tongue out at Pinoe. 

“Ok let’s get this thing started! Cabin blue line up on the right side of the rope, and cabin green line up on the left.” Abby says and we take our positions. All of the girls line up in front of us, Molly is in front because she is the smallest, and then it’s Kelly, me, Alex, and Ash bringing up the rear. We stare across the huge puddle of mud and try to make intimidating faces at our opponent. 

“Ok ladies here are the rules. When I say go you are going to pull as hard as you can until one team is pulled into the mud pit. Now if you are on the losing side you must hold onto the rope until you are pulled in. No letting go of the rope!” Christie explains. 

“Alright. On your mark. Get set. GO!” Abby yells. 

We pull as hard as we can and soon we have a rhythm going on. Every few seconds we would give a huge tug and we would gain an inch or two. That is until Kelley slips in the mud and falls down. She’s only down for a second but in that time cabin green took advantage and pulled two of our girls, including Molly, into the pit. 

“Kelley I swear if we lose getting served food first, I’m going to murder you.” Ash grunts out. 

“I’m sorry it was an accident!” Kelley yells back at her. 

“Ok guys we got this come on pull harder!” I shout out. 

Soon we are back to even ground and now slowly gaining ground, I can see the first kid’s shoe about to slip over the edge. With one more pull, she tumbles over the edge into the pit. At the sight of their cabin mate covered in mud, a couple of the girls lose concentration and begin giggling, making it easy for us to make a giant pull, and now they join their cabin mate. Now they are down by 5 and we are really gaining ground now. Soon it’s just the counselors left and we pull more slowly, wanting to enjoy this. The first counselor to be pulled in is HAO. Next up is Ann, and she is just shaking her head and laughing before being pulled in. Now all that is left is Pinoe and Lori. 

“Don’t ever let go Lori!” 

“I wont! I wont ever let go!” Pinoe and Lori jokingly quote Titanic. 

“Are you ready to get mudified???” Kelley asks. 

“That’s not even a word Kel.” Cheney shouts from the sideline. 

“It is now!”

We pull harder and then Pinoe’s feet are at the edge of the mud puddle, and she turns back to look at Lori. 

“So long my friend and comrade. It was awesome knowing you… I’ll see you on the other sid-“ she says but doesn’t get to finish because we tug her in mid sentence. She comes up spitting the mud out of her mouth in the most dramatic way, and flops around in the mud. Lori just looks at us and makes a little surrender flag motion with her hand with the most pleading smile on her face. We smile evilly at her and she sighs. “Nope I didn’t think so. Well it was worth a shot!” she says right before we pull her in. 

Our entire team drops the rope and cheers loudly; even Molly who is covered in mud is jumping around in excitement. I’m next to Kelley at the edge of the pit when we hear a small voice below us. 

“Hey can you help me up?” We look down and see Ann’s outstretched hand. Kelley instantly jumps on the opportunity and softly takes her hand. Just as Kelley is about to pull Ann out, Ann pulls Kelley in. I jump back to avoid the splash and almost roll on the ground laughing when I see Kelley’s look of shock on her face. Ann just smiles at Kelley, extremely amused with herself, and Kelley seems transfixed for a moment before she is snapped out of it by Pinoe. 

“I knew you had something up your sleeve!” Pinoe said laughing loudly and slapping Ann across the back. Kelley stares for a few more minutes as a slow smile spreads across her face and the same thing occurs on Ann’s face. 

“Ok this isn’t a mud bath, come on girls time for the next set of cabins!” Abby says. 

The girls pull themselves out of the pit, and the next two cabins line up. We watch the competition waiting for our turn again. The whole time Kelley and Ann sneak glimpses of each other. 

“Why don’t you two go have sex already?” Ash asks jokingly and Kelley turns and punches her in the arm. 

“OW! You know if you want to win getting served first maybe you shouldn’t hit your strongest asset.” Ash grumbles rubbing her arm. 

Soon it’s our turn again and we easily beat cabin red, pulling them into the mud pit quickly. We blaze through our next two components and find ourselves in the final. This match was a little harder, but we still emerged victorious. 

“YES!” Kelley shouts as soon as the last person is pulled in. “Yes yes yes yes!” she says skipping around, looking ridiculous as she is caked in mud. 

“ I didn’t think we were actually going to win this thing.” I say chuckling. 

“Yeah me neither! I thought for sure Hope, Cheney, Ali, and Syd were going to beat us, but I guess we are the best.” Alex says shrugging her shoulders and then wincing. “Oo I’m going to be so sore tomorrow.”

“I’ll give you a massage tonight.” I whisper at her and wink.

“That would be much appreciated.” She says licking her lips. 

“Now who needs to have sex already??” Kelley murmurs as she walks by to gather the girls to get cleaned up. We laugh and join in on helping Kelley, who was a bundle of joy from the combination of winning and the looks her and Ann kept sharing. 

“This is going to be fun.” Ash says quietly to me, pointing between Ann and Kelley. 

“I think I know what we should do tonight. It is the second Saturday after all.” I chuckle. 

“I’ll talk to Syd.” Ash says with an evil gleam in her eye, before walking off to find Syd.

“What happens on the second Saturday??” Alex asks curiously, and I turn to her with an evil gleam also in my eye and a smirk to match it. 

“Strip poker night.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whose ready for strip poker night?? Also how do you guys like me bringing in Ann instead of it being O'solo?


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys I just got done with finals and a huge swim meet. Also I. Get. To. Go. To. The. Game. Today. And. See Abby. Play. In. Her. Last. Game. EVER!

Alex’s POV

After everyone had gotten cleaned up from the tug of war, I along with Tobin gathered up the girls to go and eat dinner. I watch as Tobin picks Molly up and begins to tickle her so hard that all Molly can do is shriek with laughter. Tobin laughs along with her and finally stops her attacks, placing her on top of her shoulders. Seeing that Molly was on Tobin’s shoulders, all of the younger girls swarmed around Tobin begging to be carried or picked up. She turned to me with wide eyes, begging for my help but I just laughed and shook my head. 

The rest of the 10 minute walk, Tobin continuously picked up kids, let them hang on her arms and swung them, and let them stand on her feet as she walked. When we finally reach the pavilion, all the girls except for Molly run to the food line trying to be the first among their friends. Kelley of course is first even though she is a counselor. Tobin lifts Molly off of her shoulders and slowly puts her onto the ground. Tobin turns to me but is interrupted by Molly tugging on her shirt. She bends down so that Molly can whisper in her ear, but is surprised when Molly throws her arms around her neck and kisses her cheek before running off. Tobin stares after her in a daze for a few seconds and I walk up to her brushing her shoulder. She turns to me showing off her mega watt smile. 

“I honestly love that kid.” She says. 

“I know you do. I do too. It’s really hard not to.” I say as we fall into line. 

“I want to do something special for her during that week break in the summer where kids either go home for a little bit or stay here. “ She says as she grabs a tray. 

“Do most of the kids stay or go home?”

“Almost all of the kids go home for a few days. The only ones that stay are those that live really far away or their family is on vacation.” She explains. 

“Oh I gotcha.” I say nodding my head. 

“Yep. So I just wanna do something with her.” She says. “ Hey Mrs. Margaret how are you tonight??” She asks the cook.

“Oh I’m doing great now that I get to talk to you for a little bit. I heard that your cabin won a challenge, I’m not surprised.” She said smiling at Tobin. 

“Mrs. Margaret you’re going to make me blush! Oh my gosh you made your blueberry cobbler tonight?!!” Tobin asked excitedly. 

“As if I could ever do that to you. Yes I did! To celebrate cabin blues victory. Here take a little extra I know its your favorite.” She says giving Tobin another scoop of cobbler. 

“Marg you know the way to my heart.” She says placing a hand over her heart and then glances at me. “Could you perhaps give my friend here an extra scoop as well? She’s never had your blueberry cobbler before and doesn’t know what she’s in for.” 

“Anything for you Toby.” She says sweetly and places an extra scoop on my plate. 

“Thank you, you’re the best.” Tobin said winking at her. 

We walk to the table and sit down next to Ash and Kelley, who is already half way through her spaghetti. 

“That lady has such a crush on you.” I state.

“What? No she doesn’t!” Tobin responds. 

“Yes she does!”

“Who does? Mrs. Margaret?” Ash chimes in.

“Yes!”

“No!”

Tobin and I say simuntaeously. 

“Yeah she totally does Tobs.” Ash chuckles. 

“I second that.” Kelley says in between bites. “Speaking of seconds I wonder if I can get some.”

“Kelley do you really want a food baby when we play strip poker tonight?” Ash asks. 

Kelley seems to ponder it for a few moments before nodding her head in agreement. 

“You’re right you’re right! I mean I have a killer six pack but I don’t want to over do it and not be able to see them.” She says rubbing her belly. 

“Trying to impress someone??” I ask innocently. 

“Yeah planning on getting a little down and dirty with someone that rhymes with pan??” Tobin questions, wiggling her eyebrows. 

“Shut up you guys!”

“Better stop making such a fuss Kel, you’re girl is headed this way.” Ash says causing Kelley to look over her shoulder and quickly spin back around. 

“What’s up bitches.” Pinoe greets, plopping down in the seat next to me. 

“Pinoe! Language!” HAO says sternly. 

“Sorryyyyy mom. Anyways so here’s the game plan for tonight. After dinner there’s no bonfire, I already talked to Abby, everything is too wet to get a fire started. So instead we’re projecting Frozen for the girls. As soon as that’s over with, we’re putting the munchkins to bed and heading over to Syd’s cabin. She’s already cleared the floor and everything is all set up. Remember ladies, where you’re best undergarments.” Pinoe said winking at us and walking off. Ann, Lori, and HAO wave goodbye to all of us before also walking away. When the girls are far enough away Kelley lets out a huge breath. 

“I’m going to die tonight.” Kelley said with her head between her hands. 

“So am I.” Tobin said under here breath so low I hardly heard it, rubbing a hand through her hair. I smile to myself taking a bite of spaghetti to hide it. 

The rest of the night goes by surprisingly quick. The entire camp squeezes into the pavilion to watch Frozen and we sing the songs together. The younger girls fall asleep through the movie after the exhausting day everyone had. Soon all the girls have been put into their respected cabins and Tobin, Ash, Kel, and I are making our way to Syd’s cabin. We walk in and see that Ali, Kling, Syd, Pinoe, Lori, and Ann are already here so we are the last ones to arrive. 

“Finally!” Kling says. 

“Sorry! We had to carry most of our kids because they had passed out.” Ash says with a shrug of her shoulders. 

“Alright lets get this started! Shots for everyone before I explain the rules to the newbies!” Syd shouts bringing out a tray of shots that had already been pored. I tip the contents into my mouth and immediately cringe as the vodka hits my tongue and glides down my throat. I feel it burn its way down my throat and into my stomach, warming all of my insides. I look around to see if anyone hated shots as much as me and see that Tobin is actually reaching for a second one. 

“Going a little fast aren’t we? It’s not about how you start, but how you finish you know.” I say smirking at her. 

“I play better when I’m intoxicated.” She winked at me before knocking it back smoothly without even cringing. 

“Ok here’s how we play at Camp Red Fern! We still play with chips but if you lose a hand or fold after the flop you have to take an item of clothing off. Orrrrrrrrr you bet a clothing item on top of the chips in the pot and everyone that is in on that hand has to match your call. Now each clothing item is worth something, but no worries we have a board for that!” She says as she pulls out a cardboard poster. On it were the rules of the game and how much each clothing item is worth. 

STRIP POKER BITCHESSSS  
Jacket-50  
T-shirt-100  
Shorts-250  
Bra-500  
Underwear-1000  
LETS GET NAKED!!!!

“I know its different from most strip poker games but this is how its been done at camp red fern before we were here and we aren’t breaking that tradition.” Pinoe says with a shrug of her shoulders. 

“Also we take shots before every new hand so lets get this party started!!” Syd shouts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will either be posted today or tomorrow I pinky promise.


	16. Chapter 16

Alex’s POV

Pinoe and Syd hand out another round of shots before the game starts. Again I cringe at the taste of the vodka, and I make eye contact with Ann across the room who is making the same face. 

“I hate shots.” She said laughing and shaking her head, while I nod mine in agreement. 

“Ok Kling is dealer first.” Syd says. 

“Awwwww why me??” Kling complains.

“Because you decided to wear the most clothes.” Pinoe points out with a roll of her eyes. 

“Come on guys you know I suck at poker, I’m always the first one naked! And I’m also tinier then you guys so alcohol gets in my system faster!” Kling says defending herself. 

“Fine, but you’re still dealing.” Syd says and Kling huffs sadly.

I’m sitting next to Ann and Lori with Tobin across from me and Kelley right next to her. Syd and Pinoe hand out 500 dollars worth of chips to everyone Kling deals out the first hand and I sneak a look at my cards and see that I have a pair of tens. Not to shabby for a first hand I thought to myself. Everyone around the table calls the big blind and Kling lays out the flop and the cards are a queen, four, and ten. Immediately I get excited but try not to show it and casually raise the pot by 20. 

“Ooo Lex is going for it. Whatcha got there??” Kelley asks as she calls my raise. 

Syd, Lori, Ash fold as everyone else calls and Kling then deals the turn. It’s a four again. We go around the table and this time it’s Kelley who raises it by 50. Everyone calls but Ali and she folds. Kling deals the river and it’s a three. I’m positive I have the best hand so I raise it by 100. 

“Damn it.” I hear Pinoe curse under her breath. Everyone but Kelley and Tobin fold their cards. Kelley calls my raise and so does Tobin, but then Tobin raises it by betting another 50 into the pot. I stare at her to see if she’s bluffing but nothing on her face gives her away. I call and raise her another 50. All the girls around us are getting excited that the pot is so big on the first round. 

Kelley looks at her cards again before sighing and folding. Now it’s just Tobin and me. Tobin calls my raise and I think she’s done raising the stakes. Nope. Tobin takes off her t-shirt and throws it into the middle of the pot.

“Hell yes Tobs is the first to start stripping!!” Syd says excitedly. 

I stare at Tobin and she raises an eyebrow challenging me. I quickly rip off my shirt as well and toss it into the pot. I watch as her eyes skim over my body before looking at Kling.

“Alright Lex lets see em.” She says. 

I lay down my pair of tens and grin at Tobin in victory. She smirks at me and then tosses her cards face up on the table and the room explodes. She had a pair of queens up her sleeve. 

“Full house.” She states and then reaches for the pot. Instead of putting on her shirt she puts on MY shirt. I glare at her and she sends me a wink. 

“Sorry Lex.” She says shrugging her shoulders and smiling. 

“Damn that was a good round.” Ann says next to me. 

“I tried my best.” I say looking down at my chips and seeing I have about half left. 

“Another round of shots!” Pinoe says. 

“With all these shots I’m not going to last very many rounds.” Ann says chuckling. 

“I’m in the same boat as you.” I say and hold out my hand for a high five. 

The game continues and nothing super exciting for me happens. I win a few small rounds and am slowly building up what I had lost to Tobin in the first round. Speaking of Tobin, she is a total baller at cards. She has the most chips by far, and has made Syd, Ash, Kling, and Lori lose almost all of their chips. Ann and I are definitely feeling all the shots that Syd and Pinoe keep handing out. I’m sitting out of this round, having folded early in the hand, and notice that it’s just Ann, Kelley, and Pinoe in the game. I decide to mess with Kelley and lean over and whisper into Ann’s ear. 

“You should bet your clothes and distract Kelley.” 

Ann giggles and shakes her head no.

“Come on I know you aren’t oblivious. You guys keep staring at each other. Obviously that would distract her from her cards.”

Ann seems to think about it for a second, and then rips off her shirt and puts it in the pot. I watch, as Kelley’s eyes grow big before trying to contain her facial expression. She casually takes off shirt and puts it in the pot as well, and Pinoe folds her cards with a sigh. Syd deals out the river and I nod at Ann to continue. Ann then takes off her shorts slowly and drops them in the pot. 

“Ow Ow!!” Pinoe and Lori say at the same time. Kelley recovers slowly and takes off her shorts as her eyes skim over Ann’s body. Kelley and Ann reveal their cards and Ann comes out victorious. 

“Shit. I didn’t even see that she could have a straight.” Kelley said shaking her head. 

“A little distracted Kel?” Ash says grinning with her arm around Ali’s shoulders. Kelley turns bright red while Ali slaps Ashlyn’s leg. 

“OW! Ali that hurt!” Ash said rubbing out her leg. All of the girls laugh at Ash and at Kelley’s red face. Ann smirks while taking Kelley’s shirt and copying Tobin by putting it on rather then her own shirt. 

Two rounds later and I along with the rest of the girls are hammered. Pinoe, Syd, Lori, Ash, Kling, and Ali had lost all of their chips, had gotten the clothes that they bet back, and were now sitting on bunk beds drunkenly laughing and leaning on each other. Kelley, Ann, Tobin and I were still left and at the moment playing a fierce round. Kelley and Ann were all in and both didn’t have shirt or shorts on. Kling flips the river over and Tobin gives a little snicker as she throws down her cards, winning the hand. 

“Shit!” Kelley exclaims. 

“I need some air it’s too hot in here.” Ann said fanning herself. She stands up; walking outside and I turn back around to see Kelley staring at her. 

“Yeahhhhhhh I need to cool off to.” She says and gets up quickly and hurries after Ann. Lucky for her, the only girls that saw this was Tobin and I. The other girls at the moment were busy fixing drinks. 

“Now it’s just me and you.” I say to Tobin and she grins widely at me. 

“You want to make things interesting??” I ask. 

“Strip poker isn’t interesting enough for you?” Tobin asked laughing. 

“Loser has to jump into the lake naked.” I say and all of the girls start hollering. 

“Yeah that’s what I’m talking about!” Syd exclaims. 

“I knew Alex was going to be a fun one!” Pinoe said. Tobin doesn’t say anything; she just stares at me squinting her eyes for a second. 

“Deal I’m in.” She says and the girls shout in approval. 

Kling deals out the cards and I get a queen and ace of hearts. The flop was a King, ten of spades and a jack of hearts. This is so my round I thought to myself. I raise it by 50 and wait to see what Tobin does. She calls my raise and waits for the turn. Kling flips over the card and it’s a queen of spades. I raise the pot this time by 100 and Tobin calls but takes off her shirt as well. Her toned stomach distracts me for a moment and I can see her smirking at me. Glaring at her I take off my shirt and put it in the pot. Kling deals out the last card and it’s a two of diamonds. I raise by 250 and wait to see if Tobin backs out. She scrunches her eyebrows and calls my 250 and then raises it by another 250. I’m a little shocked that she did that so I raise her call by 100. She looks up at me and smirks before standing and somehow gets her underwear off without having to take off her shorts, and drops them slowly into the pot. At this point I’m flabbergasted and all the other girls are freaking out. I quickly count my chips and realize I’m short of a 1000 to call her underwear. There is no way I can take off my underwear with my shorts on. That shit takes practice. 

I slowly take off my sports bra and place it into the pot with the rest of my chips. 

“All in. Oh and the winner gets to make the loser do anything they want for a whole day. ” I say cockily. 

Tobin’s eyes had gone big and I watched her swallow as her gaze runs over my body causing goose bumps to break out on my skin. She looks up into my eyes before shoving all of her chips into the pot. 

“All in and deal.” She says before leaning back against the bed with her hands behind her head. 

“Alright show em.” Kling says and I reveal my cards first. 

“Damn good try Tobin.” Ali says and Ash just shakes her head at Ali. 

“No way Tobin totally has something up her sleeve. Right Tobs?” Ash said looking at Tobin who them flips her cards slowly over revealing an ace and jack of spades. 

“Royal flush.” She says slowly and the room explodes in cheers. 

“Fuck.” I say staring at her as a small grin crosses her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you guys think


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyyyyyyyyyyy guys

Alex’s POV

“What have I gotten myself into.” I mumble under my breath as all of the girls lead me to the lake. 

“Rookie mistake.” Ashlyn says. 

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Tobin never loses at poker. EVER.” Ali says. “I was really hoping she would be dethroned this year.” She adds on pouting slightly. 

“In your dreams Krieger.” Tobin’s voice calls out. 

I turn around to look at Tobin and she’s staring at me with a smirk plastered across her face. I scrunch up my face and stick my tongue out at her before turning around and continuing my begrudging march to the lake. When we finally reach the pier I slowly start stripping off my clothes as the girls holler quietly. When I’m completely naked I glance over at Tobin and am surprised to see her scuffing her feet on the dock and not taking the opportunity to check out my body. I open my mouth to say something but Syd and Pinoe suddenly push me into the lake. 

I come up for air sputtering and Syd and Pinoe are laughing loudly. Tobin runs over and puts her hand over their mouths quickly.

“Shut up or you are going to wake up Abby and Chri-“ Tobin whispers harshly but stops when a light flicks on inside of the two head counselors cabin. 

Everyone begins to run as fast as they can back to Sydney’s cabin and I begin to panic. 

“Wait! Don’t leave me guys!” I shout in a whisper. 

Tobin stops immediately and looks back to me, she looks to the cabin where the porch light just turned on, and curses before running back to me. She lowers herself off the pier and balances on the crossties so she didn’t get wet and , hunching over so that Abby or Christie doesn’t see her. She looks at me, putting a finger over her mouth and winks before turning her attention back to the porch, which Abby just stepped onto. 

We watch as Abby stomps across the porch and look around for a few minutes before deciding she must have misheard, and walked back inside. Tobin and I both let out a large sigh of relief and I start to giggle. 

“Well that was a close one.” Tobin said with a small smile. 

“Yeah could you imagine what Abby would have done if she found me naked in the lake??” I ask with wide eyes causing Tobin to chuckle. 

“It wouldn’t be the first time she found someone. Pinoe was the culprit a couple summers back. Abby was so mad that she made Pinoe wash all of the dishes by hand after every meal for a week! By the time she finished washing all the dishes for one meal, the next meal started. Once her punishment was done she didn’t go to the pavilion for a week. It was so fucking funny!” Tobin said laughing quietly while still balancing over the crosstie. 

I giggle along with her until a cold breeze suddenly hits us and I shiver as my head and shoulders are exposed to it. Tobin looks down at me for a second and seems to be having an internal battle with herself until she comes to a decision. 

“You should get out of the water, give me a sec and I’ll get your clothes.” She says and before I can respond she hoist herself gracefully onto the deck and pitter patters away. 

I’m not left with my thoughts for very long, because three seconds later, Tobin is sticking her head over the dock to look down at me. 

“Um Lex, we have a bit of a problem…”

“Oh god what?”

“I think one of the girls must have picked up your clothes as they were running so that Abby didn’t see them.” Tobin said wincing. 

“Seriously??” 

“Yeahhhhhh but its ok you can wear my sweatshirt and shorts, I have Ashyln’s boxers on. Just walk to shore and I’ll give it to you.” She said hopping up and walking off the deck. I get to the shore quickly and Tobin is holding out her sweatshirt while once again looking at her feet. I take the sweatshirt and shorts from her, purposefully touching our hands together. 

“Thanks Tobin.” I say while putting on her clothes.

“No problem Lex.” She says as her ears go red. 

“Tobin.”

“Yeah?” 

“Why didn’t you look at me before I jumped into the lake or just a moment ago.” I ask while I’m the one now that is staring at their feet. I hear Tobin sigh before answering. 

“Because I don’t want to see you like that.”

I look up quickly, hurt at the words that she had just said, and begin to storm off in the direction of our cabin. 

“Wait Lex!” Tobin calls out but I begin to run. 

“Fuck.” She says and I hear her run after me. 

I run even faster, passing our cabin and I’m not even thinking about where I’m going. Just running. I’m crashing through the forest and hear Tobin close behind me running into branches. 

“Lex stop!” She yells. 

And I do. Not because Tobin told me to. I stopped because I realized I had somehow made my way to the luminous area that Tobin had brought me. I turn around and see Tobin hardly out of breath walking close to me. 

“Alex I did not mean it like that yo-“

“I get it Tobin, you don’t want to be with someone who hasn’t been with a girl before.” I say crossing my arms across my chest as I watch the fireflies glide around the area. 

“Alex.” I hear her say but I stay silent. 

“Alex look at me.” She says taking my hands in hers and I eventually look up to her and get sucked into those warm brown eyes of hers. 

“I didn’t mean it like that. Because I don’t want to see all of you for the first time like that, in front of everyone.” She says glancing down at our intertwined hands. 

“I-I shit it shouldn’t be this hard.” She said letting go of my hands and walking off rubbing the back of her neck.

“I care for you! I care a lot actually. Probably too much and more then I should in fact.” She says with her hands held out wide. “And that scares the fucking shit out of me. Because I’ve done this whole falling for a straight girl whose in a phase thing and it sucks!” 

She looks down at her feet and takes a few deep calming breaths before walking back up to me. She makes eye contact with me and gone is the chill and relaxed girl that I’ve known. Instead there is a scared and unsure girl standing in front of me. 

“I want all of you. Not just a glimpse. Not for just a moment. I mean from the moment I met you, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. And I must look like an idiot saying these things to you when I’m in Ashlyn’s boxers and a tshirt so I get it if you don’t feel the same way.” She says the last part while fidgeting with her shirt. 

“I do feel the same way.” I whisper and watch her head pop up.

“Really?”

“Yes. I’ve never felt this connected to someone in such a short amount of time. It is a little daunting to have all these feelings for you because I’ve never liked or been with a girl before. But I’m not scared, I’m excited. So excited because you make me feel so special, and your funny, and sweet, and amazing with kids, and you are so so so beautiful.” I say watching Tobin’s face change from hopeful to having a full blown grin on her face. 

“Really?” She says still smiling. 

“Yes. Even in boxers. ” I say smiling and she smiles back before looking at me seriously and biting her lip.   
“Alex.” She says taking a step closer to me. 

“Yeah?” 

“I need to kiss you so badly. One of those kisses where I’m pressing against you as much as I can and my hands are in your hair and moving down your back, clutching to you in anyway I can. Kissing you as deeply as possible and thinking your mine.” She says desperately staring at me, searching my face for any type of hope that I would feel the same way.

“What are you waiting for then.” I whisper. 

All in one motion she forced me, gently, against a tree, reached up, linked her hands behind my neck and brought my mouth down onto hers. The kiss was fierce and determined, and after a moment of surprise I responded hungrily. Her body was pressed tightly against mine, and I ran my hands down her back. We kissed again, this time more tenderly. It was intoxicating.

I felt dizzy from Tobin’s proximity and tried to get a grip. I was bewitched by Tobin’s lips on mine. Goosebumps broke out on my skin when she slowly kissed my neck. She moved from my neck up to my lips and kissed me a final time before pulling away and looking at me. 

“Damn.” She says chuckling and all I can do is nod my head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you guys think or what you would like to see in the next few chapters.


	18. Aster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S BACK BITCHES!!!!!!

Tobin’s POV

The next morning I’m rudely awakened by my alarm on my watch. I shut it off quickly, and sink back into the warmth that Alex’s body provided. I lie there for a moment more before leaning over and giving her a kiss and stand to put on my running clothes. 

My morning jog has always given me the peace and solitude to think. Today, as I run, I couldn’t get last night out of my head. Damn. That kiss was the best one I had had in a while. I got so distracted thinking about it that I trip over a root and to avoid hitting the tree in front of me I dive to the side. Unfortunately, I miscalculated the rate of my acceleration and find myself not landing next to the soft growth of ferns I was aiming for, but rolling down the slope of the hill. I crash into bushes and roll over hard stones until I finally come to a stop at the bottom of the hill. 

I groan and grimace as I slowly lift myself into a sitting position, noticing that I was on the edge of a large field. I assess my body by rolling and bending all of my joints to make sure nothing is broken. I’m covered in small scrapes, cuts, and what I’m sure when given time will be bruises and my shirt has small tears all over it. I sigh to myself and rub my face in exasperation that I had just rolled down a 50-foot hill because I wasn’t paying attention. 

I’m about to stand when I hear movement and what sounds like a weak bleat. My head spins around searching for the source of the sound and land on a small deer not even 15 feet away from me. I pause and stare at the deer, waiting for it to get up and bounce away but it doesn’t. Curious, I slowly move forward, keeping my movements slow as not to scare the deer. As I get closer, I see that the deer is actually a fawn; it’s so young that it still has its spots. I also notice that the reason the fawn hadn’t run away was because one of its back legs looked to have been bitten pretty badly. 

“Shit.” I mutter to myself as I continue to approach slowly. 

The baby deer looks at me with fear in her wide eyes and she lets out a pathetic grunt as she tries to wiggle into a standing position. I kneel down in front of her and place a cautious hand on her back, rubbing it gently. Eventually, the fawn stops panicking, but still watches me warily out of the corner of its eye. I hear the snap of twig behind me, and whirl around to find what looks like coyote stalking along the edge of the tree line. It must have been scared away when I came tumbling down the slope. 

“Shit.” I mumble to myself again, but this time more in slight panic. I grab the nearest item, a rock, and lob it at the coyote, surprised when it nailed the coyote in its shoulder. It gives out a yelp and scampers away quickly. I turn my attention back to the fawn who is watching the retreating figure of the coyote intensely.

“Now what the hell am I going to do with you?” I say as I stroke her fur. I pet her gently, and it seems to me like she is calming down and is somewhat comfortable in my presence now. Not knowing what else to do, I sigh and sit back on my heels before tearing my tattered shirt, once again, in half. 

“This is the second time I’ve had to purposely rip a shirt this summer. Why does this keep happening?” I say to the deer that is now chewing on some flowers that surrounded her. 

“What am I going to name you hmm? Not something lame like Bambi.” I say to myself as I continue to rip my shirt until I have a long piece of cloth. The fawn seemed undisturbed by my presence, and continued to chew on the flower that I had now identified as Aster. 

“Aster. That’s your name. Aster it is.” I say to the fawn as I rub her head lightly. 

Knowing that it would be painful, I wrap her hurt leg as gently as I could. She tries to move away from the pain I am inflicting but I know I need to continue to wrap it to stop the bleeding and prevent flies and dirt from getting in it. 

“Shh it’s okay.” I say softly as I stroke her back to try and calm her down. Once she had calmed down, I knew the difficult part was upon me now. 

“Please don’t freak out, please don’t freak out, please don’t freak out.” I chant quietly as I move my arms underneath Aster’s belly and begin to lift her in the air.

Aster lets out a surprised slightly distressed bleat and talk coolly to try and keep her calm as I begin the long and what I know will be a tiring journey back to camp. I stumble and struggle to climb up the hill without the use of my arms, but finally I reach the top. I make the slow trek back to camp, and by the time I’m in camp, I’m sweating profusely even though it’s only 7:00. 

I’m almost to my cabin when I hear a pitter patter of feet behind me and look to see Molly running up to me with wide eyes. 

“Toby that’s a baby deer!” She says excitedly as her eyes run over Aster in my arms, but her eyebrows scrunch together when she sees the bloody bandage on her back leg. 

“She’s hurt Toby.” She says quietly and the look of sadness that crosses my face breaks my heart. 

“I know Molly but we’re going to get someone to fix her so that she’s all better.” I say as I lay down Aster in the cool grass behind our cabin. I did this because I know once the girls see a baby deer, there would be a stampede to pet it. 

“Will you be my important helper Molly?” I ask her as I stretch out my burning arms and wipe the sweat off of my face. She looks down at Aster before nodding her head vigorously. 

“I need you to stay here with Aster and keep her calm while I go get someone to fix her. Can you do that?” 

Molly’s chest sticks out in a way that only occurs when kids think you have given them the most important job in the world as she nods her head affirmatively. 

“Great! Ok I will be right back!” I say and jog off in the direction of cabin green. I quietly enter the cabin, and walk over to the bed where I see bright blonde hair sticking out in multiple directions. 

“Pinoe.”I whisper as I touch her shoulder. 

“Yeah I’ll give you my banana.” She mutters in her sleep and I recoil before biting my lip to stop the giggle threating to burst past my lips. Once I have myself under control I lean in to try and wake her up again.

“Pinoe. Pinoe wake up.”

“Mmm wh-what Tobin?” She opens her eyes and responds sleepily. 

“I need your help Pin.” I say to her as I throw the covers off of her. 

“What happened to you?!” She whisper shouts as she sees my cut and bloodied body and ripped shirt. 

“I’ll explain when we are outside.” I say as I eye her roommates her were starting to stir. 

“Ok.” She mumbles as she hops out of bed and throws on some clothes. 

“So I was on my morning run.” I begin as soon as we’re out the door and walking in the direction of my cabin. “and I tripped over a root and went rolling down a 50 foot hill.” I motion to the cuts on my body. “and landed in a field. I look over and there’s a baby deer who had it’s leg mangled by a coyote that I had scared off when I rolled down the hill.” I explain to her as we round the corner of my cabin and see Molly carefully tending to Aster. 

Pinoe’s sleepy face turns to a serious one as she kneels next to Aster and begins to unwrap my t-shirt bandage. She exams the bite studiously but gently before rambling off what she needs. 

“I need a bowl of warm water, scissors, pads, hydrogen peroxide since we don’t have any antibiotics out here, thread, needle, and bandages. Oh and we’re gonna need an extra person to help hold her down.” Pinoe informs me before I run off to gather things. 

Pinoe is a vet back in Portland, and I’ve actually been working there for the last few months since my internship didn’t start until August and I needed a job. 

I walk into my cabin and wake Alex so that she could help me get the supplies. Her eyes widen when she sees my state, but I place my finger over my lips and motion for her to follow me. Once outside I explain what happens and the look of sadness that crosses Alex’s face breaks my heart almost as much as Molly’s expression did. We gather the supplies quickly and hurry back to Pinoe. 

“Ok Tobs you hold her front legs and Alex you hold her back leg steady for me.” Pinoe orders. We get in placement and Pinoe begins to clean the wound with warm water and Aster flinches immediately. 

“It’s ok Aster. We’re here to help you.” Molly says as she strokes Aster’s face before leaning in to give her a kiss. I open my mouth to warn her not to do it, but to my utter surprise, Aster actually licks the side of Molly’s face, causing her to giggle. 

“Ok everyone hold her tight, because this one is really going to make her jump.” Pinoe says as she holds the hydrogen peroxide. Alex and I tighten our grips on her legs and Molly wraps her arms around Aster’s neck. After cleansing the wound, the rest of the procedure was easier. Pinoe stitched up as much as she possible could before covering the stitches with the bandages Alex and I brought. 

“If it doesn’t get infected, she should be healed completely in about 2 weeks.” Pinoe says as she stands and cracks her back. 

“Thanks Pin, I just couldn’t leave her out there when I knew what the coyote would have done.” I say to her as I also stand. 

“I would have done the same thing Tobs.” Pinoe says with a soft smile. “You’re going to need get some goat milk for her. She’s still to young to be eating on her own and she’ll be needing a minimum of 4 cups of milk a day.” Pinoe says as she observes Aster licking Molly’s fingers. 

“Also um I don’t know how well Abby is going to like a baby deer in the cabins, sooooo I would definitely keep this on the down low.” She says as she begins walking off. 

“Alrighty then. Thank god it’s Sunday, that way I can make another ‘mail run’ and get some milk while I’m out.” I think out loud to myself. 

“And I can stay back and take care of Aster.” Alex responds. 

“Sounds perfect.” I smile brightly to her and we just stare at one another, smiling stupidly. 

“What do I do Toby?” Molly asks tugging on my shorts, and drop down to where I am eye level with her. 

“Well if Abby says its ok, you can come with me and get stuff for Aster, and if not you can stay here and help take care of Aster here. How’s that sound?” 

“Great!” She says excitedly. 

“Ok well I’m going to go get some breakfast and then start gathering all of the letters fr-“ 

“Um Tobin. Don’t you think you should shower first?” Alex asks smirking at me. 

I look down and see that I am covered in blood and fur and my shirt looks like I had morphed into the Hulk and then transferred back to being a human. 

“Yeah I guess I should do that shouldn’t I?” I chuckle as I examine myself causing Molly and Alex to break into giggles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided to switch it up a little and give this an update instead of Imagine You and Me. Good decision or no?? Would you rather have had an update on IYAM?? What are we thinking ladies??(I'm making an assumption that we are in fact all ladies here but if you're a dude reading this then that is totally cool as well)


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